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Jonathan Isaiah

Targum · 200-300 C.E.

Targum Jonathan is the official eastern Babylonian Targum (interpretation) to the Hebrew prophets that contains added details not found in the Hebrew source. It is not to be confused with Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, an Aramaic translation of the Torah, which is often known as "Targum Jonathan" due to a Medieval printer's error. It originated, like Targum Onkelus for the Torah, in the synagogue reading of a translation from the Prophets. The Talmud attributes its authorship to Jonathan ben Uzziel, a pupil of Hillel the Elder. Material in this Targum family may date back to the 2nd Century C.E.

1The prophecy of Isaiah, son of Amoz, concerning the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. 2 Hear, O heavens, which shook when I gave my Torah to my people, and listen, O earth, which trembled at my word; for the LORD speaks, “The house of Israel is my people. I called them sons. I cherished and glorified them, but they have rebelled against me.” 3 The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s crib; but Israel does not understand, my people do not perceive to return to my Torah. 4 Woe, for they were called a holy people, yet they have sinned; a chosen congregation has multiplied their sins. They were named a beloved seed, yet they acted wickedly, and it was said of them, “Cherished sons,” but they have corrupted their ways. They have forsaken the service of the LORD; they have despised the reverence of the Holy One of Israel. Because of their wicked deeds, they are turned backward. 5 They do not understand to ask, “Why are we still afflicted?” They continue to sin. They do not question, “Why is every head sick and every heart sorrowful?” 6 From the least to the greatest, none among them is perfect in my fear. All of them are disobedient and rebellious; they defile themselves with sin like an open wound. They do not abandon their arrogance or desire repentance, and they have no merits to protect them. 7 Your country lies desolate, your cities are burned with fire; in your presence, foreigners consume your land. Because of your sins, it is removed from you and given to strangers. 8 And the congregation of Zion is left like a booth in a vineyard after it’s been picked clean, like a tent in a cucumber field after it’s stripped, like a city besieged. 9 Had the LORD of hosts not left us a remnant in his mercy, our sins would have consumed us, so that we would have perished like the people of Sodom and been destroyed like the inhabitants of Gomorrah. 10 Listen to the word of the LORD, you rulers whose deeds are as evil as the rulers of Sodom! Give ear to the Torah of our God, you people whose actions resemble those of Gomorrah! 11 “There is no pleasure in the multitude of your sacrifices,” says the LORD. “Enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts and the blood of bulls or lambs or goats; I find no pleasure in these.” 12 “When you come to appear before me, who requires this from you? Do not trample my courts! 13 Do not continue to bring offerings that are tainted; they are an abomination before me. At new moons and sabbaths, you gather in assembly without abandoning your sins, expecting your prayers to be accepted. 14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my Memra despises; they are despicable before me. I have forgiven much. 15 And when the priests stretch out their hands to pray for you, I turn my face from you; even if you pray much concerning yourselves, I have no desire to accept your prayers because your hands are full of innocent blood. 16 Return to the Torah; cleanse yourselves from your sins; remove the evil of your deeds from before my presence; cease to do evil. 17 Learn to do good; seek justice, defend the oppressed, judge the case of the fatherless, plead for the widow’s cause. 18 Then, when you return to the Torah, you will plead before me, and I will fulfill your request,” says the LORD, “though your sins are scarlet like dyed cloth, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like pure wool. 19 If you are willing and obey my Memra, you shall eat of the good of the land; 20 but if you refuse and do not obey my Memra, you shall be devoured by the sword of the adversary; for the Memra of the LORD has decreed it.” 21 How the faithful city has become as corrupt as a harlot! She was full of those who upheld justice! Righteousness dwelt in her, but now they are killers of souls. 22 Your silver has turned to dross, your wine is diluted with water. 23 Your rulers are rebellious, companions of thieves. All of them love bribes, saying to one another, “Assist me in my case, and I will repay you in yours.” They do not defend the orphan, and the widow’s complaint does not reach them. 24 Therefore, the Lord of all says, the LORD of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, “I am about to comfort Jerusalem, but woe to the wicked when I reveal myself to execute just retribution upon the enemies of my people, and I will take vengeance upon the adversaries. 25 I will turn my hand against you, and I will refine away your dross as with lye, and remove all your impurities. 26 I will restore your judges as in the beginning, and your counselors as at the start. Afterward, you shall be called the city of truth, the faithful city.” 27 Zion shall be redeemed through justice, and those who return to her in righteousness. 28 But rebels and sinners shall be crushed together, and those who abandon the Torah of the LORD shall be consumed. 29 For you shall be ashamed of the oaks of idols in which you delighted, and you shall be humiliated for your gardens of idols where you gathered. 30 For you shall be like an oak with fading leaves, and like a garden without water. 31 And the strength of the wicked shall be as kindling, and their deeds like a spark of fire; they shall burn together, and no one will show them mercy.

2The word of prophecy that Isaiah, son of Amoz, prophesied concerning the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 2 And it shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the sanctuary of the LORD will be established at the top of the mountains, and it will be exalted above the hills; and all nations will turn to worship there. 3 Many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the sanctuary of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways, so we might walk in his paths.” For out of Zion will go forth the Torah, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. 4 He will judge between nations and mediate for many peoples, and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, nor will they learn war anymore. 5 House of Jacob, let us walk in the teaching of the Torah of the LORD. 6 For you have forsaken the reverence of the Mighty One, who was your savior, O house of Jacob, because your land is filled with idols from the east, and with soothsayers like the Philistines, and you follow the customs of foreigners. 7 Their land is filled with silver and gold, and there is no end to their treasures; their land is filled with horses, and there is no end to their chariots. 8 Their land is filled with idols; they bow down to the work of their own hands, to what their fingers have made. 9 So humanity is humbled, and the strength of men falters—and you will not forgive them! 10 They will flee into caves in the rocks, hiding in the dust from the fearsome presence of the LORD, and from the brilliance of his glory. 11 The haughty looks of humanity will be humbled, and men’s strength will fail; only the LORD will be exalted in that day. 12 For the day is coming from the LORD of hosts against all the proud and lofty of heart, and against all the strong—they will be brought low; 13 against all the kings of the nations, powerful and ruthless, and against all the rulers of the provinces; 14 against all the high mountains and against all the lofty hills; 15 against all who dwell in high towers and all who camp within fortified walls; 16 and against all who dwell in the islands of the sea, and those who reside in beautiful palaces. 17 The pride of humanity will be humbled, and men’s strength will fail; only the LORD will be exalted in that day. 18 The idols will completely disappear. 19 They will flee into caves in the rocks and holes in the ground, from the fearsome presence of the LORD and from the brilliance of his glory when he rises to shatter the wicked of the earth. 20 In that day, people will throw away their idols of silver and gold, which they made for themselves to worship—their idols and their images. 21 They will flee into the caves in the rocks and the clefts in the cliffs, from the fearsome presence of the LORD and from the brilliance of his glory when he rises to shatter the wicked of the earth. 22 Stop putting your trust in mere mortals, whose breath is in their nostrils. For today they live, but tomorrow they are gone, and they are counted as nothing.

3For the Lord of the world, the LORD of hosts, is taking away from Jerusalem and Judah support and aid, all support of food and all help of drink; 2 the mighty man and warrior, the judge and scribe, the diviner and elder;[1] 3 the captain of fifty, the man of rank, the counselor, the skilled craftsman, the wise man, and the expert in counsel. 4 “I will make mere youths their rulers, and the inexperienced will rule over them.” 5 The people will oppress one another, every man against his neighbor; the youth will be insolent to the elder, and the base fellow to the honorable. 6 When a man seizes his brother in his father’s house, saying, “You have a cloak; you shall be our leader, and this ruin shall be under your authority,” 7 he will reply in that day, saying, “I am not a healer; in my house there is neither bread nor clothing; you shall not make me leader over the people.” 8 For Jerusalem has stumbled and Judah has fallen, because their words and deeds are against the LORD, inciting anger before his glory. 9 Their biased judgments testify against them; like the sins of Sodom, they flaunt their sins without hiding them. Woe to them! For they have brought this disaster upon themselves. 10 Tell the righteous, “It will be well with you,” for they will enjoy the fruits of their deeds. 11 Woe to the wicked whose deeds are evil, for the recompense of their hands will be given back to them. 12 My people—those who lead you plunder you like vineyard gleaners, and creditors rule over you—O my people, your leaders mislead you and corrupt your paths. 13 The LORD is ready to judge and to reveal his justice among the people. 14 The LORD will bring to judgment the elders and leaders of his people, “You have plundered my people; the spoils of the poor are in your houses. 15 What do you mean by crushing my people and turning aside the needs of the oppressed in their legal cases?” says the LORD God of hosts. 16 And the LORD said, “Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, walking with uplifted necks, ogling with their eyes, walking with mincing steps and exciting lust with their feet,[2] 17 therefore the LORD will humble the nobles of the daughters of Zion and take away their glory.” 18 In that day the LORD will remove the finery of their anklets, headbands, and hair ornaments; 19 the pendants, bracelets, and veils; 20 the headdresses, ankle chains, sashes, and perfume boxes; the amulets and charms; 21 the rings and nose rings; 22 the festal robes, cloaks, shawls, and handbags; 23 the mirrors, fine linen garments, turbans, and shawls. 24 And it shall come to pass that where there was fragrance, there will be stench; where there were belts, scars; where there was beautiful hair, baldness; where there was fine clothing, sackcloth; and shame will replace beauty. 25 Your men will fall by the sword, and your warriors in battle. 26 The gates of her cities shall lament and mourn, and her land will be desolate and abandoned.

4In that day, seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, “We will eat our own food and wear our own clothes, only let us be called by your name; take away our disgrace.” 2 In that day, the Messiah of the LORD shall be a source of joy and glory, and those who uphold the Torah will be a point of pride and praise among the survivors of Israel.[3] 3 It shall come to pass that those who remain in Zion and who have upheld the Torah will be established in Jerusalem; they will be called holy, every one recorded for eternal life shall see the consolations of Jerusalem. 4 When the LORD has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodshed within Jerusalem by a decree of justice and by a spirit of purging, 5 then the LORD will create over the entire sanctuary on Mount Zion and over the place of the Shekhinah’s house a cloud of glory—it will cover it by day, and a dense cloud of flaming fire by night. It shall have glory even greater than was promised, as the Shekhinah will shelter it like a canopy. 6 Over Jerusalem, there will be the covering of my cloud to protect by day from heat, and it will serve as a refuge and shelter from storm and rain.

5The prophet said, Now I will sing to Israel, who is like a vineyard, the seed of Abraham my beloved, a song of my beloved about his vineyard. My people, my beloved Israel, I gave them an inheritance on a high mountain, in a fertile land. 2 I sanctified them and made them glorious; I propped them up like a precious vine. I built my sanctuary among them, and I also gave my altar to make atonement for their sins. I thought they would do good works before me, but they did evil works. 3 The prophet said to them, They have revolted from the Torah and are not willing to return. Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge the case between me and my people. 4 What more good could I have thought to do for them that I have not done? And what is this? I thought they would do good, but they have done evil. 5 And now I will tell you what I will do to my people: I will cause my Shekinah to depart from them, and they will be plundered; I will break down the house of their sanctuary, and they will be trampled down.[4] 6 I will make them abandoned; they will not be visited or supported; they will be cast out and forsaken. I will command the prophets not to prophesy to them. 7 For the people of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant plant. I thought they would do justice, but they are oppressors; I thought they would do righteousness, but they are multiplying sins. 8 Woe to those who join house to house, who bring the field of violence near to their own fields, saying, “Until we possess every place”; and they think they will dwell alone in the midst of the land. 9 The prophet said, With my own ears I have heard when this was decreed from before the LORD of hosts, “Truly, many houses will be desolate, even the great and the fair, with no inhabitant.” 10 Because of the sin of not giving tithes, a place of ten acres of vineyard will produce one bath, and the place where a cor of seed was sown will produce three measures.[5] 11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning chasing after old wine, slow to leave it, lingering on their couches until the dawn of morning. The wine of oppression inflames them! 12 At their feasts there are the harp and the viol, the cithara, the organ, and the wine; but they do not regard the Torah of the LORD, nor consider the work of His power. 13 Therefore my people have gone into captivity unawares, their honored men have died of famine, and their multitude of dryness and thirst. 14 Therefore hell has enlarged itself and opened its mouth without measure; and their nobles, and their multitudes, and their tumultuous assemblies, and whoever is strong among them, will descend into it. 15 The common man will be humbled, the strength of the strong will be weakened, and the eyes of the proud will be humbled. 16 And the LORD of hosts will be mighty in judgment, and the holy God will be sanctified in righteousness. 17 And the righteous will be fed, as it is promised concerning them, and they will multiply; and the righteous will possess the possessions of the ungodly. 18 Woe to those who begin to sin a little at a time, drawing sins along with the ropes of vanity, and they go on and increase until they are strong, and their sins are like a cart-rope. 19 those who say, “When will He hasten and reveal His miracle, that we may see it; and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, that we may know it!” 20 Woe to those who say to the wicked who prosper in this world, “You are good”; and say to the meek, “You are wicked.” Is it not so? When light comes to the righteous, will it not be dark for the wicked? The words of the Torah will be sweet to those who do them, but bitterness will come to the wicked, and they will know that in the end sin is bitter to those who commit it. 21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight! 22 Woe to those who are mighty to drink wine, and mighty lords of riches, who make themselves drunk with old wine. 23 who justify the guilty in order to receive from him the mammon of falsehood, and wickedly take away the righteousness of the righteous from him. 24 Therefore they will be devoured like stubble in the fire and like dry hay in the flame; their strength is multiplying, but it will be like an ulcer, and the money of their oppression like the dust that flies away; because they despised the Torah of the LORD of hosts and rejected the Memra, the Holy One of Israel. 25 Therefore the anger of the LORD of hosts is mighty against His people, and He has lifted the stroke of His power upon them. When He struck them, the mountains moved, and their carcasses were cast out like dung in the midst of the streets. For all this they do not turn away from their sins, that His fury might turn away from them; but until now their rebellion grows stronger, and His stroke is again to take vengeance on them.[6] 26 And He will lift up a banner to the nations from far away, and He will call him from the end of the earth; and a king with his army will come swiftly, like light clouds. 27 None among them will be weary or stumble; none will slumber or sleep; the belt at their waist will not be loosened, nor the strap of their sandals broken. 28 Their arrows are sharp and their bows bent; their horses’ hooves are hard like flint, and their wheels swift like a whirlwind. 29 His roaring will be like a lion, and he will roar like a young lion; he will roar and seize the prey and carry it away safely, and none will rescue it. 30 And at that time he will roar against them like the roaring of the sea, so that if the wicked seek support from the inhabitants of the earth, he will bring upon them oppression and destruction; but the righteous who are in that hour will be protected on account of the evil.

6In the year that King Uzziah was struck with leprosy, the prophet said, I saw the glory of the LORD sitting on His throne, high and lifted up to the highest heavens, and the temple was filled with the brightness of His glory.[7] 2 Holy ministers on high stood before Him; each one had six wings. With two he covered his face, so that it could not see; with two he covered his body, so that it could not be seen; and with two he was ministering.[8] 3 One cried to another, and they were saying, “Holy in the highest and exalted heavens is the house of His Shekinah; holy on the earth is the work of His might; holy forever and ever is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of the brightness of His glory.”[9] 4 The posts of the threshold of the temple shook at the voice of the one who cried, and the house of the sanctuary was filled with cloudy darkness. 5 Then I said, “Woe is me, for I have sinned! For I am a guilty man, deserving rebuke, and I dwell in the midst of a people polluted with sin; for my eyes have seen the glory of the Shekinah of the King of the worlds, the LORD of hosts.” 6 Then one of the ministers flew to me, and in his mouth was a word that he had received from the Shekinah of Him who sat on the throne of glory in the highest heavens, above the altar. 7 He placed it in my mouth and said, “I have put the words of my prophecies in your mouth; your iniquities are taken away, and your sins are atoned for.” 8 And I heard the voice of the Memra of the LORD, which said, “Whom shall I send to prophesy, and who will go to teach?” Then I said, “Here I am; send me.” 9 And He said, “Go and tell this people, who hear diligently but do not understand, and see diligently but do not know.[10] 10 Make the heart of this people fat, make their ears heavy, and darken their eyes; otherwise they might see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and repent, and it would be forgiven them.” 11 Then I said, “LORD, how long?” And He answered, “Until the cities are laid waste with no inhabitant, and the houses without people, and the land is left desolate and wasted.” 12 And the LORD has removed the children of men far away, and the desolation is great in the midst of the land. 13 And there will be left in it righteous men, one out of ten; they will return, and they will be brought to poverty. Like the terebinth and the oak when their leaves fall, they are like dry trees; nevertheless they are still moist enough to raise up seed from them. So the captivity of Israel will be gathered and will return to their land, for the holy seed is their planting.[11]

7In the days of Ahaz son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of the tribe of the house of Judah, Rezin king of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to wage war against it, but he was not able to fight against it. 2 It was told to the house of David, “Syria has joined with the king of Israel to come against him.” And his heart and the heart of his people shook like the trees of the forest shaking in the wind. 3 Then the LORD said to Isaiah, “Go out now to meet Ahaz, you and the rest of your disciples who have not sinned and who have turned away from sin, at the end of the channel of the upper pool, by the road to the launderers’ field, 4 and say to him, Be careful and stay calm; do not fear, and do not let your heart be shaken because of these two kings, who are like two smoking firebrands, because of the fierce anger of Rezin with Syria and of the son of Remaliah. 5 Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah have plotted evil against you, saying, 6 ‘We will go up into the land of the house of Judah, and let us join together, and make them serve our profit. We will set up a king in it, whoever we think suitable.’[12] 7 Thus says the Lord GOD, ‘It will not stand, nor will it come to pass. 8 For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and at the end of sixty-five years the house of Israel will cease to be a kingdom. 9 And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you will not believe the words of the prophet, surely you will not be established.’” 10 Moreover the prophet of the LORD spoke again to Ahaz, saying, 11 Ask for a sign from before the presence of the LORD, that a miracle may be done for you on the earth, or that a sign may be shown to you in heaven. 12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, nor will I test the LORD.” 13 And he said, Listen now, house of David! Is it a small thing for you that you are troublesome to the prophets, that you also refuse the words of my God? 14 Therefore the LORD Himself will give you a sign: a young woman will conceive and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel. 15 A child eats butter and honey before he knows to reject the evil and to choose the good; 16 but before a child knows to reject the evil and to choose the good, the land will be laid desolate, the land over which you are in distress because of these two kings. 17 The LORD will bring on you, and on your people, and on your father’s house, days that have not come since the day the house of Ephraim separated from the house of Judah; namely, the king of Assyria. 18 At that time the LORD will call to a people, to bands of armies, mighty men as numerous as flies, and will bring them from the ends of the land of Egypt; and to mighty armies, powerful as bees, and will bring them from the farthest parts of the land of Assyria. 19 They will all come and settle in the streets of the cities, and in the clefts of the rocks, and in all the deserts full of thorn-hedges, and in all the houses of praise. 20 At that time the LORD will slay them as one is slain by a sharp sword, by clubs, and by saws, by those beyond the river, by the king of Assyria; the king and his army, and his rulers too, He will destroy together. 21 At that time a man will raise a young cow and two sheep. 22 And because of the abundance of rich goodness, one will eat oil; for with oil and honey all the righteous will be fed, those who are left in the midst of the land. 23 At that time, in every place where there were a thousand vines worth a thousand pieces of silver, it will become briers and thorns. 24 People will come there with arrows and bows, because all the land will become briers and thorns. 25 And all the hills of the house of Judah that are dug with the hoe, the fear of briers and thorns will not come there; but it will be a place for oxen to lie down, and a place for flocks and sheep to rest.

8And the LORD said to me, “Take a large tablet and write on it in plain writing, ‘Hasten to seize the prey and to take away the spoil.’ 2 And call to witness before me, as faithful witnesses, the curses that I threatened to bring through the prophecy of Uriah the priest, and they have come; and also the consolations that I promised to bring through the prophecy of Zechariah son of Jeberechiah, which I am about to bring.” 3 And I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. Then the LORD said to me, “Call his name, ‘Hasten to seize the prey and to take away the spoil.’ 4 For before the child knows how to cry, ‘My father and my mother,’ the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried into captivity before the king of Assyria.” 5 And the Memra of the LORD spoke again to me, saying, 6 “Because this people refuses the kingdom of the house of David, which guides them in quietness, like the waters of Shiloah that flow softly, and delights in Rezin and Remaliah’s son; 7 therefore the LORD is bringing up against them the army of the peoples, who are many, like the waters of a river, strong and mighty, the king of Assyria and his army; and he will come up over all his channels and go over all his banks. 8 And he will pass through the land of the house of Judah like an overflowing torrent; he will reach as far as Jerusalem, and the people of his army will fill the breadth of your land, O Israel.” 9 Band together, O peoples, yet you will be broken; listen, all you who are at the ends of the earth; arm yourselves, yet you will be broken; arm yourselves, yet you will be broken. 10 Take counsel together, yet it will come to nothing; speak the word, yet it will not stand, because God is our help. 11 For the LORD spoke to me like this by the power of prophecy and instructed me not to walk in the way of this people, saying, 12 “Do not call rebellion all that this people calls rebellion; do not fear what they fear; and do not call their strength a strength. 13 The LORD of hosts, Him you shall call holy; let Him be your fear, and let Him be your strength. 14 And if you will not obey, His Memra will be among you for vengeance, a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to both houses of the princes of Israel, a destruction and a snare, because they contend against those of the house of Judah who dwell in Jerusalem. 15 And many among them will stumble and fall and be broken and snared and captured. 16 O prophet, keep the testimony; do not testify the testimony among them, because they do not obey; seal up and hide the Torah, for they are not willing to learn it.” 17 The prophet said, Because of this I prayed before the LORD, who has said that He would take away His Shekinah from the house of Jacob, and I pleaded before Him. 18 While I live with the children whom the LORD has given me, the signs and wonders that are promised to come upon Israel will be established among us. But if they would see and repent, the decree He decreed against them would be annulled, that they should go into captivity and not appear before the LORD of hosts, whose Shekinah is in the mountain of Zion. 19 And when the nations among whom you will live say to you, “Consult the necromancers and the wizards who chirp and mutter” — is this not the way of the nations, the worshippers of idols? A people seeks from its idol, the living from the dead.[13] 20 Thus you shall say to them, “We will listen to the Torah that has been given to us, and to the testimony.” Yet you will go into captivity among the nations, and they will speak to you according to this word. Now there is none among them who would search and seek after it. 21 And one will pass through the land, stumbling along, and there will be oppression and famine. And when he sees famine and affliction, he will curse and despise the name of his Moloch and his idolatry; and he will look upward to seek deliverance after the decree has been sealed, but he will not be able to obtain it. 22 And he will seek help from the inhabitants of the earth, because there will come upon him oppression, famine, the weariness of oppression, darkness, and dispersion. 23 For none who come to oppress them will be weary, as at the former time, when the people of the land of Zebulun and the people of the land of Naphtali went into captivity; and those who were left, a mighty king led into captivity, because they did not remember the power of the Red Sea, nor the wonders of the Jordan, nor the war of the fortifications of the nations.

9The people, the house of Israel, who walked in Egypt as in darkness, went out to see a great light. Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, on them the light has shined. 2 You have multiplied the people, the house of Israel; to them You have multiplied the joy. They rejoice before You as with the joy of those victorious in battle, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. 3 For You have taken away the yoke of his dominion and the government of oppression; the government with which he enslaved him is broken as in the day of Midian. 4 All their dealings are in wickedness; they are polluted with sins, like a garment dipped in blood whose stains of filth cannot be cleansed; so it is like something of no use except to be burned in fire. So He will bring against them nations who are mighty as fire, and they will slay them. 5 The prophet said to the house of David, For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and he has taken the Torah upon himself to keep it. His name is called from before Him who is wonderful in counsel, the mighty God who lives to eternity, the Messiah, in whose days peace will be great upon us. 6 The greatness of those who keep the Torah will be magnified, and of those who maintain peace. There will be no end to the throne of David and to his kingdom, to establish it and to build it in justice and in righteousness from now on and forever. By the Memra of the LORD of hosts this will be done.[14] 7 The LORD sent a word against the house of Jacob, and it was heard in Israel. 8 The people, all of them, have become great, Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria, who say in pride and stoutness of heart, 9 “The princes are carried off captive, but we will appoint better ones than they. The treasures are plundered, but we will purchase more beautiful ones than these.” 10 Therefore the LORD will strengthen the hatred of Rezin against him, and He will stir up his enemies. 11 The Syrians from the east and the Philistines from the west, and they will plunder the treasures of Israel in every place. For all this they do not turn away from their sins, that His anger might turn away from them; but still they hold fast to their rebellion, and yet His stroke will be to take vengeance on them. 12 And the people have not returned to the worship of God since the time He brought the stroke upon them, and they do not seek the instruction of the LORD of hosts. 13 And the LORD will destroy from Israel the prince, the captain, the ruler, and the governor in one day. 14 The elder and honored one, he is the head; and the scribe who teaches lies, he is the feeble one. 15 And those who praise this people lead them astray, and their princes swallow them up. 16 Therefore the LORD will have no joy in their young men, nor will He have mercy on their orphans and widows; for all of them are hypocrites and evildoers, and all their mouths speak lies. For all this they do not turn away from their sins, that His anger might turn away from them; but still they hold fast to their rebellion, and yet His stroke is ready to take vengeance on them. 17 The punishment of their sins will burn like fire; it will consume the sinners and the wicked, and will rule over the rest of the people, and will make an end of a great multitude. 18 Through the wrath from before the presence of the LORD of hosts the earth will be burned up, and the people will be like fuel burning in fire; no one will spare his brother. 19 He will plunder on the south and still be hungry; he will destroy on the north and not be satisfied; they will plunder the wealth, each man the wealth of his neighbor. 20 Those of the house of Manasseh with those of the house of Ephraim, and those of the house of Ephraim with those of the house of Manasseh, will join together as one to come against those of the house of Judah. For all this they do not turn away from their sins, that His anger might turn away from them; but still they hold fast to their rebellion, and yet His stroke is ready to take vengeance on them.

10Woe to those who sign oppressive decrees, and to those who write out grievous statutes, 2 to turn aside the needy from justice, and to rob the poor of my people of what they are owed in judgment, making widows their prey and robbing the orphans of their wealth. 3 What will you do in the day your sins are visited upon you, when the tumult of oppression comes from far away? Where will you flee for help, and where will you leave your glory? 4 Therefore out of your land you will be bound among the captives, and out of your cities you will be cast out slain. For all this they do not turn away from their sins, that His anger might turn away from them; but still they hold fast to their rebellion, and yet His stroke will be to take vengeance on them. 5 Woe to the Assyrian, the government of my fury! An angel is sent from before me against them for a curse. 6 I will send him against a hypocritical assembly, and against a people who have transgressed my Torah I will give him a charge, to take the spoil and to take the prey, and to make them trampled underfoot like the mire of the streets. 7 But he did not intend this, nor does his heart think so; rather, in his heart he has determined to destroy and to make an end of many nations without compassion. 8 For he says, “Are not all my rulers alike considered as kings before me? 9 Is it not so? As Carchemish is subdued before me, will not Calno be the same? As Arpad is delivered into my hands, will not Hamath be the same? As I have done to Damascus, so will I do to Samaria. 10 As my hand has reached the kingdoms that worship idols, though their images were more than those of Jerusalem and their statues more than those of Samaria, 11 shall I not do to Jerusalem and her idols as I have done to Samaria and her idols?” 12 And when the LORD has finished doing all He has said on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the glory of his haughty looks. 13 For he says, “By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I am shrewd; I have led nations into captivity from province to province, I have plundered the cities of their glory, and with strength I have brought down those who dwell in fortified places. 14 And my hand has found the riches of the peoples like a nest; and as one gathers abandoned eggs, I have gathered all the inhabitants of the earth; and there was none that stirred a wing, or opened its mouth, or chirped.” 15 Is it possible that the axe should boast against the one who chops with it, saying, “I have cut”? Or should the saw magnify itself against the one who pulls it, saying, “Do I not pull?” When a rod is lifted up to strike, it is not the rod that strikes, but the one who strikes with it. 16 Because the king of Assyria magnifies himself, therefore the Lord of the world, the LORD of hosts, will send a blow among his princes; and beneath the vessels of their glory they will be utterly burned up, like the burning of a fire. 17 And the LORD, the Light of Israel, will be there, and His Holy One; His Memra will be strong as fire, and His Memra as a flame; and it will slay and make an end of his rulers and his governors in one day. 18 And it will consume the glory of the multitude of his army, both their souls and their bodies, and he will be broken and become a fugitive. 19 And the rest of his warriors will come to an end, so that the people will be a small number, and they will be reckoned a weak kingdom. 20 And at that time the remnant of Israel and those who have escaped of the house of Jacob will no longer lean on the people whom they served, but they will lean on the Memra of the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. 21 The remnant who have not sinned and have turned away from sin, the remnant of the house of Jacob, will return to worship before the mighty God. 22 Though your people Israel be like the sand of the sea, a remnant who have not sinned but have turned away from sin, for them mighty things will be done, which will prevail, by those who speak in righteousness. 23 For the Lord, the God of hosts, is bringing a full and final end upon all the wicked in the midst of the earth. 24 Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, “O my people who dwell in Zion, do not be afraid of the Assyrian. He will strike you with his government, and he will lift up his dominion over you, after the manner of Egypt. 25 For in a little while the curses will cease from you of the house of Jacob, and my anger will be against the people who work iniquity, to destroy them.” 26 And the LORD of hosts will bring a stroke upon him, like the stroke of Midian at the rock of Oreb; and his dominion will depart from you, as the dominion of Pharaoh departed at the sea, and mighty works will be done for you after the manner of Egypt. 27 And at that time his dominion will depart from you, and his yoke from off your neck, and the nations will be broken before the Messiah.[15] 28 He has come to Aiath, he has passed through Migron; at Micmash he will appoint the princes of his army. 29 They waded, they crossed the Jordan; at Geba they spent the night; the inhabitants of Ramah are broken; the men of Gibeah of Saul have fled. 30 Lift up your voice, men of the daughter of Gallim! Listen, you who dwell in Laish, you who dwell in poor Anathoth. 31 The men of Madmenah are broken; the inhabitants of Gebim have fled. 32 The day is still high, and he has much time left. Look, Sennacherib the king of Assyria! He journeyed and passed three stations, and he brought with him forty thousand seats of gold, in which the sons of the kings, crowned with crowns, were sitting; likewise there were led with him two hundred thousand bearing swords and spears; he also brought with him two hundred and sixty thousand archers, and a hundred thousand men ran before him. The length of his camp was four hundred parasangs; the necks of his horses, forty parasangs; the number of his army was two hundred and sixty thousand myriads less one. So they came against Abraham, when they had cast him into the midst of the burning fire, and so they will come with Gog and Magog, when the world will have completed its end to be redeemed. When the first host crossed the Jordan, they drank up the waters that were in the Jordan. When the second host crossed the Jordan, the hooves of the horses soaked up and drank the waters. When the third host crossed the Jordan, they dug wells and drank the waters. He came and stood at Nob, the city of the priests, before the wall of Jerusalem; he answered and said to his army, “Is this not the city of Jerusalem, against which I have noisily gathered all my camps, and for the sake of which I have oppressed all my provinces? Look, she is smaller and weaker than all the fortified cities of the nations that I have subdued by the strength of my hand.” He came up, he stood and shook his head; he stretched out and moved his hand against the mount of the house of the sanctuary that is in Zion, and against the court that is in Jerusalem. 33 Look, the Lord of the world, the LORD of hosts, will cast slaughter into his camp like grapes trodden in a winepress; and the tall in stature will be cut down, and the mighty will be brought low. 34 And He will slay the mighty men of his camp, who are strong as iron, and those who make war on the earth will be cast down.

11And a king shall come forth from the sons of Jesse, and from his children’s children the Messiah shall be anointed.[16] 2 And there shall dwell upon him the spirit of prophecy from before the LORD: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD. 3 He shall bring him to the fear of the LORD; and he shall not judge according to the sight of His eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears. 4 But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with faithfulness the needy of the earth; and he shall strike the sinners of the earth with the word of his mouth, and with the speech of His lips he shall slay Romulus the wicked.[17] 5 And the righteous shall be around him, and the workers of faith shall draw near to him. 6 In the days of the Messiah of Israel peace shall be multiplied in the earth. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall dwell with the kid; and the calf, and the lion, and the fatling together; and a little sucking child shall be leading them. 7 And the cow and the bear shall feed together, their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8 And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put forth his hand on the sight of the pupil of the eyes of the adder. 9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the fear of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea. 10 And there shall be at that time a son of the son of Jesse, who shall stand for an ensign of the people; kings shall obey him, and the place of his dwelling shall be in glory. 11 And it shall come to pass at that time, that the LORD shall add a second time His might to redeem the remnant of His people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pattros, and from India, and from Elam, and from Babylon, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. 12 And He shall lift up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the scattered of Israel, and the captivity of Judah He shall gather together from the four winds of the earth. 13 The envy of the house of Ephraim shall depart, and those that oppress the house of Judah shall come to an end: those of the house of Ephraim shall not envy the house of Judah; and those of the house of Judah shall not oppress the house of Ephraim. 14 They shall be united in one mind to strike the Philistines towards the west: they shall spoil the children of the east. Against Edom and Moab they shall stretch out their hands, and the children of Ammon shall obey them. 15 And the LORD shall dry up the tongue of the Egyptian sea, and shall lift the stroke of His strength upon Euphrates by the word of His prophets, and shall strike it in seven streams, and men shall walk through it on dry ground. 16 And there shall be a paved way for the remnant of His people, which shall be left, from Assyria, as it was for Israel in the day of their coming up from the land of Egypt.

12And you will say at that time, “I will give thanks before You, O LORD, for I have sinned before You; Your anger is upon me, but when I return to the Torah, Your anger will turn from me, and You will have mercy on me. 2 In the word of God is my salvation; I trust and will not be shaken, because my strength and my praise is the fear of the LORD; He has spoken by His word, and He has become my salvation.” 3 And you will receive a new teaching with joy from the chosen of the righteous. 4 And at that time you will say, “Praise before the LORD, pray in His name, declare His deeds among the peoples, remember that His name is powerful. 5 Praise the LORD, for He has done mighty works; this is made known in all the earth. 6 Cry out and shout, O congregation of Zion, because great is He who promised to cause His Shekinah to dwell in the midst of you, the Holy One of Israel.”

13The burden of the cup of cursing to give to Babylon to drink, which Isaiah the son of Amoz prophesied. 2 Against the fortified city that dwells securely lift up a banner, raise your voice to them, wave your hand, that they may enter the gates of the nobles. 3 I have commanded those prepared by me; I have also called together my mighty ones to avenge my wrath upon them, those who exult in my strength and my praise. 4 There is the sound of a multitude in the mountains, like that of a great people, the sound of the tumultuous assembly of kings, of nations gathering together; the LORD of hosts is mustering the armies for battle. 5 They come from a far country, from the ends of the earth, the LORD and the vessels of the cup of cursing before Him, to destroy all the wicked of the earth. 6 Wail, for the day is near, ready to come from before the LORD; like plunder from before the Almighty it will come. 7 Therefore all hands will go limp, and every man’s heart will melt. 8 They will be struck with terror; distress and pangs will take hold of them; they will writhe like a woman in labor; they will look at one another in amazement; their faces will be like flames of fire. 9 The day comes from before the presence of the LORD, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate; and He will destroy the sinners out of it. 10 For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be darkened as it rises, and the moon will not cause her light to shine. 11 And I will punish the inhabitants of the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the greatness of the wicked, and I will bring low the strength of the mighty. 12 And I will love those who fear me more than gold, in which the sons of men glory, and those who keep the Torah more than the fine gold of Ophir. 13 Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth will move out of its place, from before the presence of the LORD of hosts, in the day of the fierceness of His anger. 14 And he will be like a hunted gazelle, and like sheep with no one to gather them together; each man will turn to his own people, and everyone will flee to his own land. 15 Everyone who is found in her will be slain, and everyone who enters into the fortified cities will be slain by the sword. 16 And their children will be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses will be plundered, and their wives ravished. 17 I am bringing upon them the Medes, who are not swayed by silver, and as for gold, they take no delight in it. 18 And their bows will strike down the young men; they will have no compassion on the child of the womb; their eye will not spare the children. 19 And Babylon, which was once the joy of kings, the beauty of the Chaldeans’ splendor, will become like the overthrow with which the LORD overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. 20 It will never be inhabited, nor will it be dwelt in from generation to generation; no Arab will pitch his tent there, nor will shepherds rest there. 21 But wild beasts will lodge there, and their houses will be filled with owls; ostriches will dwell there, and demons will frolic there. 22 Wild cats will shriek in their palaces, and dragons in their luxurious dwellings. The time of the destruction of Babylon is near at hand, and her days will not be prolonged.

14For the LORD will have compassion on the house of Jacob and will again delight in Israel, and He will make them dwell in their land; and converts will be joined to them, and they will be united to the house of Jacob. 2 And the nations will take them and bring them to their land; and the house of Israel will possess them in the land of the Shekinah of the LORD as male and female servants; and they will take captive those who had taken them captive, and those who had made them their servants will now serve them. 3 And in that day the LORD will give you rest from your distress, from your bondage, and from the hard servitude that was imposed on you, 4 that you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon and say, “How the dominion that enslaved us has ceased! How the strength of the sinner has come to an end! 5 The LORD has broken the strength of the wicked, the government of sinners, 6 him who struck the peoples in fury with a relentless stroke, who ruled the nations in anger, ruling, and none restrained him. 7 The whole earth is at rest and quiet; they break out in singing. 8 The rulers also rejoiced over you; the rich in treasures said, ‘Since you were laid low, no destroyer has come up against us.’ 9 Hell beneath is stirred for you, to meet you at your coming; it rouses for you the mighty, all the rich in treasures; all the kings of the nations rise from their thrones. 10 All of them will answer and say to you, ‘Have you also become weak as we are? Have you become like us?’ 11 Your glory is brought down to the grave, along with the noise of your harps; the maggot is spread out beneath you, and worms cover you. 12 How you are cast down from on high, you who shone among the sons of men like the planet Venus among the stars! You are dashed down to the earth, you who slaughtered among the nations.[18] 13 And you, you said in your heart, ‘I will climb up the heavens; I will set the throne of my kingdom above the people of God, and I will sit on the mountain of the solemn assembly, on the far reaches of the north;[19] 14 I will ascend above all peoples; I will be higher than all of them.’ 15 But you will be brought down to the grave, to the depths of the pit of the place of destruction. 16 Those who see you will look closely at you; they will consider you and say, ‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who laid kingdoms waste, 17 who made the world like a wilderness, who laid waste its cities, and did not open the gate for his prisoners?’ 18 All the kings of the nations, all of them, lie down in glory, each in his own eternal home. 19 But you are cast out of your grave like a discarded branch, like those hidden among the slain, like those pierced by the sword, like those who go down to the lowest pit of the place of destruction, like a carcass trampled underfoot. 20 You will not be like one of them in burial, because you have destroyed your country and slain your people; the seed of evildoers will never be established. 21 Prepare slaughter for his children, for the iniquity of their fathers, so that they do not rise and possess the earth and fill the face of the world with enemies.” 22 And I will reveal myself to take vengeance on them, says the LORD of hosts; and I will cut off from Babylon its name and remnant, its offspring and descendants, says the LORD of hosts. 23 And I will make it a possession for the hedgehog, a place of desolation, pools of water; and I will sweep her with a broom, and I will cast her down to destroy her, says the LORD of hosts. 24 The LORD of hosts has sworn, saying, “Surely, as I have planned, so it will be; and as I have purposed, so it will stand. 25 I will break the Assyrian in my land, and on the mountains of my people I will trample him underfoot; then his dominion will depart from them, and his yoke will be lifted from their necks.” 26 This is the purpose that is purposed against all the inhabitants of the earth, and this is the might of the ruler that is lifted up over all the kingdoms. 27 For the LORD of hosts has purposed, and who can annul it? His power is exalted, and who can withstand it? 28 In the year that King Ahaz died came this burden of prophecy. 29 Do not rejoice, O Philistia, all of you, because the government that enslaved you is broken; for from the children of Jesse will come forth the Messiah, and his works among you will be like a flying serpent. 30 And the poor of my people will be fed, and the meek in his days will dwell in safety; but he will slay your children with famine, and the remnant of your people he will kill. 31 Wail over your gate, cry out over your city! You Philistines, all of you, will be broken; because from the north vengeance is coming, and it will not delay its appointed time. 32 And what good news will the messengers of the nations bring back? That the LORD has founded Zion, and the poor of His people will find refuge in it.

15The burden of the cup of cursing to give Moab to drink. Because in the night Leheyath Moab is destroyed, and they were asleep; in the night the fortified city of Moab was subdued, and they were in deep slumber. 2 They went up to the houses in Dibon, to the high places, to weep. Over Nebo and over Medeba the Moabites are wailing; on every head is baldness, every beard is shorn. 3 In their streets they wrap themselves in sackcloth; on their housetops and in their broad places all of them wail, crying and weeping. 4 And the inhabitants of Heshbon and Elealeh cry out aloud; their voice is heard as far as Jahaz; therefore the armed men of Moab wail, crying out aloud for their souls. 5 The Moabites will try to flee to Zoar, to Eglath Tiltum Rabbtha; for the ascent of Luhith they ascend it with weeping; because in the descent of Horonaim they raise the cry of those broken in battle. 6 For the waters of Nimrim become desolate; the herbage is withered away, the grass fails, there is no green herb. 7 Therefore the remnant of their riches will be plundered, and their border by the western sea will be taken from them. 8 For the cry encompasses the border of Moab; their wailing reaches as far as Eglaim, and as far as Beer Elim they are crying aloud. 9 For the waters of Dimon will be full of blood; for I will bring upon Dimon an assembly of armies. Upon those of Moab who escape, a king with his army will ascend, to plunder the remainder of their land.

16They will bring tribute to the Messiah of Israel, who will prevail over those who are in the wilderness, to the mountain of the congregation of Zion.[20] 2 Otherwise it will happen that, like a bird driven away, cast out of its nest, the daughters of Moab will be sent wandering to the fords of Arnon. 3 Take counsel, carry out a decision. Make your shadow like the night at midday; hide the outcasts, do not betray the fugitives. 4 Let my outcasts dwell with you, O kingdom of Moab; be a shelter to them from the spoilers. For the extortioner is at an end, the spoiler has ceased, and those who trampled underfoot have come to an end. 5 Then the throne of the Messiah of Israel will be established in goodness, and he will sit on it in truth in the city of David, judging and seeking justice and bringing about truth. 6 We have heard of the princes of Moab, who are very proud; their nobles and their pampered ones, and their pride, will not profit them when their punishment comes. 7 Therefore the Moabites will wail; they will all cry aloud over the Moabites; they will wail over the men of their stronghold city; mourning, they will say, “Surely they are conquered.” 8 Because the armies of Heshbon are plundered, the multitude of Sibmah are killed; the kings of the peoples have killed their rulers. They reached as far as Jazer, they strayed into the desert; their outcasts passed by, they crossed the sea. 9 Therefore, as I have brought armies against Jazer, so will I bring slayers against Sibmah; I will drench you with my tears, O Heshbon and Elealeh, for on your harvest and on your vintage the robbers have fallen. 10 And joy and gladness are taken away from the fruitful field; in the vineyards there will be no rejoicing and no shouting; no treader will tread out wine in the presses; I have made the treading of grapes cease. 11 Therefore the inward parts of the Moabites will moan like a harp, and their heart will mourn over the men of their stronghold city. 12 And it will be seen that when Moab has wearied himself out on his high place, he will enter his idol-temple to pray, yet he will not prevail. 13 This is the word that the LORD spoke concerning the Moabites long ago. 14 But now the LORD has spoken, saying, “Within three years, like the years of a hired worker, the glory of the Moabites will come to an end, with all that great multitude; and the remnant will be very small and few; all their glory will come to an end.”

17The burden of the cup of cursing to give Damascus to drink. Damascus is removed, so as to be no longer a kingdom; it will become a city laid waste. 2 Their cities are deserted; they are laid waste and will become resting-places for flocks of sheep; they will lie down, and no one will frighten them away. 3 The government will cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of the solitary ones from Syria; and their glory will be like the glory of the children of Israel, says the LORD of hosts. 4 And at that time the glory of Jacob will be brought low, and the riches of his glory will be carried away. 5 And it will be as when one gathers the standing harvest and reaps the ears with his arm; it will be like one gleaning ears in the valley of giants. 6 Yet gleanings will be left in it, as when an olive tree is shaken, two or three berries on the top of the highest branch; so the righteous will be left alone in the midst of the world, among the kingdoms, says the LORD, the God of Israel. 7 At that time a man will rely on the service of his Maker, and his eyes will look in hope to the Memra, the Holy One of Israel. 8 He will not rely on the altars, the work of his hands, nor look to what his fingers have made, neither to the sacred poles nor to the sun-images. 9 At that time their strong cities will be like a fortress left desolate and waste before the children of Israel, and each will be a desolation. 10 Because you have forsaken the God of your salvation, and have not remembered the fear of the Mighty One, whose Memra was your support, therefore you have planted choice plants and have multiplied despicable works. 11 After you were sanctified to be a people, there you made your works despicable; and also when you came to the land, the place of my Shekinah, where it was your duty to worship me, you forsook my worship and served idols. You despised repentance until the day of your destruction came; then your sorrow was a gasping out of the soul. 12 Woe to the multitude of many peoples, who make a noise like the noise of the sea, and to the tumultuous assembly of kings, who roar like the roaring of mighty waters. 13 The kings roar like the roaring of many waters, but He will rebuke him, and he will flee far off; he will be driven like the chaff of the hills before the wind, and like tumbleweed before the whirlwind. 14 At evening, suddenly, it is as if he had never been; and before the morning, he is gone. This is the portion of those who hate us, and the lot of those who plunder us.

18Ah, the land beyond the rivers of India, to which they come in ships from a far country, whose sails are spread out like an eagle flying with its wings![21] 2 It sends ambassadors by the sea, in ships on the face of the waters, saying, “Go, swift messengers, to a people oppressed and plundered, to a people that was mighty in times past and will be so in time to come, a people oppressed and robbed, whose land the nations have plundered.” 3 All you inhabitants of the world, you who dwell on the earth, when the standard is lifted up on the mountains, you will see the standard, and when the trumpet sounds, you will hear of redemption. 4 For thus the LORD has said to me, “I will give rest to my people; I will make them rest, and I will delight in my holy habitation to do them good. Blessings and consolations I will bring upon them quickly; when the heat is intense from the heat of the sun, then I will be to them a cloud of dew, as in the heat of harvest.” 5 Before the time of harvest comes, when the tree is ready to bud and the unripe grape bursts into flower, He will slay the rulers of the nations with the sword, and their mighty ones He will remove and cause to pass away. 6 They will all be left to the birds of the mountains and to the beasts of the earth; all the birds of the heavens will summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth will winter upon them. 7 At that time a gift will be brought to the LORD of hosts, a people oppressed and plundered, a people that was mighty in times past and will be so in time to come, a people oppressed and robbed, whose land the nations have plundered, to the place that is called by the name of the LORD of hosts, whose Shekinah is in the mountain of Zion.

19The burden of the cup of cursing to make the Egyptians drink. The LORD is revealed in the cloud of His glory, to take vengeance on the Egyptians; and the idols of the Egyptians will be broken before His face, and the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them. 2 And I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians, and they will wage war, every man against his brother and every man against his neighbor, city against city, kingdom against kingdom. 3 And the spirit of the Egyptians will melt within them, and I will destroy their wise men; and they will resort to the idols, and to the charmers, to the deceivers, and to the diviners. 4 And I will hand over the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel lord, and a fierce king will rule over them, says the Lord of the world, the LORD of hosts. 5 And the waters of the sea will be laid desolate, and their river will be wasted and dried up. 6 And their rivers will be laid waste, and their deep streams will be dried up and wasted; the reeds and rushes will not grow. 7 And the greater part of the river will wither, along with what is on its bank; every sown place by their rivers will wither, will be dried up, and nothing will grow. 8 The fishermen will be made desolate, and all who cast a hook into the brook, and those who spread nets on the face of the waters, will be destroyed. 9 Those who work combed flax and weave nets from it will be dismayed. 10 And the well-watered places will be trampled underfoot, where they have been making pits, water-pools, each one for himself. 11 Surely the princes of Tanis have become foolish; the wise counselors of Pharaoh have given foolish counsel. How can you say to Pharaoh, “We are the sons of the wise, and you are the son of ancient kings”? 12 Where are your wise men? Let them tell you now, and let them make known what the LORD of hosts has purposed against Egypt. 13 The princes of Tanis have become foolish, the men of Memphis are deceived; they have led the Egyptians astray, the lords of the provinces. 14 The LORD has sent among them a spirit of confusion, and they have led the Egyptians astray in all their works, as a drunkard staggers and slips in his vomit. 15 And the Egyptians will have no king to reign, no prince, noble, governor, or ruler. 16 At that time the Egyptians will be weak; they will be afraid and tremble because of the lifting up of the power of the LORD of hosts, which He is raising against them. 17 And the land of the house of Judah will be a terror to Egypt; whenever anyone mentions it to them, they will tremble, because of the purpose of the LORD of hosts, which He has purposed against them. 18 At that time there will be five cities in the land of Egypt speaking the language of Canaan and swearing by the name of the LORD of hosts. The city of Beth-Shemesh, which is to be destroyed, will be called one of them.[22] 19 At that time an altar will be prepared before the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at its border before the LORD. 20 And it will be for a sign and for a witness before the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt; when they pray before the LORD because of their oppressors, He will send them a Savior and a Judge, and He will deliver them. 21 And the power of the LORD will be revealed to do good to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians will know the fear of the LORD at that time, and they will worship with holy sacrifices and offerings; they will make vows before the LORD and perform them. 22 And the LORD will strike Egypt with a stroke and will heal them, and they will return to the worship of the LORD, and He will hear their prayers and heal them. 23 And at that time there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria; the Assyrians will fight against the Egyptians, and the Egyptians against the Assyrians, and the Egyptians will serve the Assyrians. 24 And at that time Israel will be a third party with the Egyptians and the Assyrians, a blessing in the midst of the land, 25 whom the LORD of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed be my people, whom I brought out of Egypt; and because they sinned before me, I carried them captive into Assyria; but when they repent, they are called my people, and Israel my inheritance.”

20In the year that Tartan came to Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, he waged war against Ashdod and subdued it; 2 at that time the LORD spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go and remove the sackcloth from your waist, and take off your sandals from your feet.” And he did so, walking naked and barefoot. 3 And the LORD said, “Just as my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years as a sign and wonder against Egypt and Cush, 4 so will the king of Assyria lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Cush, young and old, naked and barefoot, with their shame uncovered, to the disgrace of Egypt. 5 And they will be afraid and dismayed because of Cush, the place of their confidence, and because of Egypt, their boast.” 6 At that time the inhabitants of this coastland will say, “See what has become of the place of our trust, to which we hoped to flee for help, to be delivered from the king of Assyria! If they could not deliver themselves, how will we be delivered?”

21The burden of the armies that are coming from the wilderness, like the waters of the sea, rushing along like the storms; they are coming by the way of the south, hurrying along; they are coming from the wilderness, from a land in which terrible things are done. 2 The prophet said, A dreadful vision has been declared to me. The violent deal violently, and the plunderers plunder. Go up, O Elam; lay siege, O Media! I will give rest to all who groan because of the king of Babylon. 3 Therefore their loins are filled with terror; pangs have seized them like the pangs of a woman in labor. They have become bewildered, so that they cannot hear; they are confused, so that they cannot see. 4 Their heart is bewildered; distress and terrors have seized them, because the place of their confidence has become destruction to them. 5 Prepare the table, set the watchmen, eat, drink! Rise up, O princes, polish the shields! 6 For thus the LORD has said to me, “Go, set a watchman; let him report what he sees.” 7 And he saw a chariot, a man, and with him a pair of horsemen, a rider on a donkey, a rider on a camel. The prophet said, I listened diligently, and I saw mighty armies! 8 The prophet said, The sound of armies coming with coats of mail is like a lion; I stand continually on the watchtower before the LORD by day, and I stand as a guard all the night. 9 And this was coming: a chariot, a man, and with him a pair of horsemen. He answered and said, “She is fallen! It will happen that Babylon will fall, and all the images of her idols will be dashed to pieces on the ground.” 10 Kings skilled in waging war will come against her to plunder her, like a farmer skilled in threshing the floor. The prophet said, The voice of the Memra of the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, which I have heard, I have declared to you. 11 The burden of the cup of cursing to give Dumah to drink. He thundered to me from the heavens, “Prophet, explain to them the prophecy! Prophet, explain to them what will come to pass afterward!” 12 The prophet said, There is a reward for the righteous and there is punishment for the wicked; if you will repent, then repent, while you are able to repent. 13 The burden of the cup of cursing to give the Arabians to drink. In the forest, at evening, the caravan of the sons of Dedan will lodge for the night. 14 Bring water to the thirsty, you who dwell in the land of the south; prepare for the fugitives the daily food that you eat. 15 For they have fled from the slaughter, from the drawn sword, from the bent bow, and from the fierceness of the battle. 16 For thus the LORD has said to me, “At the end of the years, like the years of a hired worker, all the glory of the Arabians will come to an end.” 17 And the strength of the warriors, the mighty ones, the sons of the Arabians, will be diminished, because by the Memra of the LORD, the God of Israel, it is so decreed.

22The burden of the prophecy concerning the city that dwells in the valley, about which the prophets prophesied. What troubles you now, that you have all gone up to the housetops? 2 because of the tumult that fills the praiseworthy, fortified, joyous city. Your slain were not slain by the sword, nor did they die in battle. 3 All your rulers have been led away; from before the bent bow they have gone into captivity together; all who were found in you have been slain, together they fled far away. 4 Therefore I said, Turn away from me, let me weep bitterly; do not try to comfort me for the desolation of the congregation of my people. 5 For it is a day of tumult, of trampling underfoot, and of slaughter before the Lord, the God of hosts, against the city that dwells in the valley, against which the prophets prophesied. They search the houses, they surround the towers that are on the tops of the mountains. 6 And the Elamites have taken up arms in the chariot of a man, and with him are a pair of horsemen, and on the wall they hang the shields. 7 And it will happen that the most beautiful of your valleys will be filled with chariots, and the horsemen will be set against the gates. 8 And he will remove the covering of Judah, and in that day he will look to the weapons in the house of the treasury of the sanctuary. 9 And you will see that the breaches of the city of David are many, and you will gather the people together at the lower pool. 10 And you will count the houses of Jerusalem, and you will tear down the houses to fortify the wall. 11 And you will make a reservoir between the walls for the water of the old pool; but you have not looked to its Maker, nor had regard for Him who created it long ago. 12 And the prophet of the LORD, the God, the God of hosts, called in that day for weeping and mourning, for shaving the head and wearing sackcloth; 13 but instead there is joy and gladness; they say, “Let us slay oxen and kill sheep, let us eat meat and drink wine; let us eat and drink, for we will die and not live.” 14 The prophet said, With my own ears I heard when this was decreed from before the LORD of hosts, that this iniquity of yours will not be forgiven you until you die the second death, said the Lord, the God, the God of hosts.[23] 15 Thus said the Lord, the God, the God of hosts, “Come, go to this ruler, to Shebna, who is appointed over the house, 16 and you will say to him, ‘What do you have here, and whom do you have here, that you have prepared a place for yourself here? He has prepared his place on high! He has carved out in the rock a dwelling place for himself!’” 17 The LORD will hurl you away with a mighty hurling, and He will cover you with shame. 18 He will take away your crown, and the enemies will surround you like an encircling wall, and they will lead you into captivity into a spacious country; there you will die, and there the chariots of your glory will return in disgrace, because you have not kept the honor of your master’s house. 19 And I will thrust you down from your station, and I will strip you of your office. 20 And at that time I will make my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah great. 21 And I will clothe him with your robe, and bind your sash on him, and I will commit your authority into his hand, and he will be a prince to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. 22 And I will place the key of the house of the sanctuary and the government of the house of David in his hand; he will open, and none will shut; he will shut, and none will open. 23 And I will appoint him as a faithful chief governor, an officer in a secure place, and he will be a glorious throne to his father’s house. 24 All the nobles of his father’s house will rest upon him, the children and the children’s children, from the young men to the little ones, from the priests clothed with the ephod to the Levites who hold the lyres. 25 At that time, says the LORD of hosts, the faithful chief governor who ministered in a secure place will be removed; he will be cut off and will fall, and the burden of prophecy concerning him will be accomplished, because the Memra of the LORD has so decreed it.

23The burden of the cup of cursing, to give Tyre to drink. Wail, you who embark in ships of the sea, because their harbors are laid waste, so that none can enter in. From the land of Chittim it is coming upon them.[24] 2 The inhabitants of the coastland are destroyed, the merchants who crossed the sea, who used to supply you. 3 She was the abundant marketplace for many nations; the harvest of the increase of the river was her revenue, and she became the marketplace of the nations. 4 The Sidonians are ashamed, because the west has spoken, which dwells in the strength of the sea, saying, “I have never been in labor, never conceived, never reared young men, nor brought up virgins tenderly.” 5 When they heard of the stroke with which the Egyptians were struck, the Tyrians quaked at the report. 6 They have crossed over to a province of the sea. Wail, inhabitants of the coastland! 7 Is this your strong city, Tyre, from ancient days? In olden times they brought her gifts from a distant land; now she is removed, to dwell far off. 8 Who has taken this counsel against Tyre, against her who used to give advice, whose merchants are princes and whose rulers are the nobles of the land? 9 The LORD of hosts is the counselor against her, to defile the glory of all the objects of rejoicing and to make contemptible all the nobles of the land. 10 Pass over your land like the waters of a river; flee to a province of the sea, for there is no more strength. 11 His power is lifted up against the sea, to make the kingdoms tremble; the LORD has given the command concerning the merchant city, to make an end of her strength. 12 And He said, “You will no longer be strong, you who did violence to the people who are in Sidon. Arise, pass over to Chittim; even there you will have no rest.” 13 Look at the land of the Chaldeans! This is the people that formerly did not exist; the Assyrians founded it in the islands; they raised up their siege towers, they tore down her palaces, they have made her a ruinous heap. 14 Wail, you who embark in ships of the sea, for the seacoast of your strength is laid waste. 15 And at that time Tyre will be set aside for seventy years, according to the days of one king; at the end of seventy years it will be for Tyre as in the song of the prostitute, 16 “Your glory is changed; wander to another country, O city, you who have been like a prostitute, you who are doomed to oblivion. Your harp is turned to mourning and your song to lamentation; perhaps you may be remembered.” 17 And after the end of seventy years Tyre will be remembered before the LORD; and she will return to her place, and her trade will be abundant for all the kingdoms of the nations that are on the face of the earth. 18 And her merchandise and her gain will be holy before the LORD; it will not be stored up or hoarded, for it will be for those who serve before the LORD, so that her gain may be for abundant food and for glorious garments.

24The LORD will plunder the land and hand it over to the enemy; and confusion will cover the faces of the princes, because they have transgressed the Torah, and He will scatter its inhabitants.[25] 2 And it will be the same for the laity as for the priest, for the servant as for his master, for the maidservant as for her mistress, for the buyer as for the seller, for the borrower as for the lender, for the one who pays interest as for the one who charges it. 3 The land will be utterly destroyed and utterly trampled underfoot, for the LORD has spoken this word. 4 The land mourns and is laid desolate; the world is laid waste and is laid desolate; the strength of the people of the land has come to an end. 5 The land has become guilty beneath her inhabitants, because they have transgressed the Torah, made the festivals cease, and changed the everlasting covenant. 6 Because of perjury the land has become a desert, and all who dwell in it are laid desolate; therefore the inhabitants of the land are destroyed, and the men who are left are but few. 7 All who drink wine mourn, because the vines are broken down; all the merry-hearted sigh. 8 The mirth of the tambourines ceases; the tumultuous assembly of the mighty is restrained; the joy of the harp ceases. 9 They will no longer drink wine with songs; strong drink will be bitter to those who drink it. 10 Their city is broken down and laid desolate; all their houses are shut up, so that no one can enter. 11 They cry out for wine in the streets; all joy has ended; all gladness is removed from the land. 12 Desolation is left in the city, and the gates are beaten to ruins. 13 So the righteous will be left alone in the midst of the earth, among the kingdoms, like the shaking of an olive tree, like the gleaning of grapes after the vintage. 14 They will lift up their voice, they will give praise on account of the Memra of the LORD; they will rejoice as they rejoiced over the mighty works that were done for them by the sea. 15 When light comes to the righteous they will glorify the LORD; in the islands of the sea they will laud and bless the name of the LORD, the God of Israel. 16 From the house of the sanctuary, from there joy will go forth to all the inhabitants of the earth, for we have heard the praise of the righteous! The prophet said, A secret! A reward for the righteous is shown to me; a secret! A punishment for the wicked is revealed to me. Woe to the oppressors, for they will be oppressed; and to the plunderers, for they will be plundered. 17 Terror, the pit, and the snare are upon you, O inhabitant of the land. 18 And whoever flees from before the terror will fall into the midst of the pit, and whoever comes up out of the midst of the pit will be caught in the snare; for mighty works are done in the heavens, and therefore the foundations of the earth quake. 19 The land is terribly shaken, the land reels back and forth terribly, the land is utterly broken. 20 The land is utterly cast down like a drunkard; she totters like a couch, and her sins are heavy upon her; she will fall and rise no more. 21 And at that time the LORD will punish the mighty host that dwells in power, and the kings, the sons of men, who dwell on the earth. 22 And they will be gathered together as prisoners, and they will be shut up in the dungeon, and after many days they will be remembered. 23 Those who worship the moon will be dismayed, and those who worship the sun will be ashamed; because the power of the LORD of hosts will be revealed on Mount Zion, and before the elders of His people in glory.[26]

25O LORD, You are my God; I will exalt You, I will praise Your name; for You have done wonderful things; surely You have brought to pass and established the counsels that You promised long ago to bring to pass. 2 For You have made the unfortified cities heaps of rubble; the fortified city is a ruin; the idolatrous house of the nations in the city of Jerusalem will never be built up again. 3 Therefore the strong people will glorify You, the city of ruthless nations will fear You. 4 For You have been a strength to the poor, a help to the needy in the time of distress, like those who are sheltered from a storm, or who are sheltered as in a shade from the scorching heat; for the words of the wicked against the righteous are like a storm that beats against the wall. 5 As the scorching heat in a dry land, You will bring low the tumult of the mighty; as the shade of a cooling rock in a parched land, so peace of mind will come to the righteous when the wicked are brought low. 6 And on this mountain the LORD of hosts will make a feast and a banquet; they think it will be for their glory, but it will be for their disgrace and for mighty afflictions from which they will not deliver themselves, afflictions through which they will come to an end. 7 The face of the prince, the prince of all the peoples, will be destroyed, and the face of the king, the ruler of all the kingdoms. 8 Death will be forgotten forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of His people He will remove from all the earth, because it has been decreed so by the Memra of the LORD. 9 And one will say at that time, “Surely this is our God; this is He for whom we have hoped, and He will save us; this is the LORD, for His Memra we have hoped; we will rejoice and be glad in His salvation.” 10 For the power of the LORD of hosts will be revealed on this mountain; and the Moabites will be trampled underfoot, as straw is trampled in the clay.[27] 11 And He will stretch out the stroke of His power among them, as a swimmer stretches himself out to swim; and He will bring low their pride, together with the schemes of their hands. 12 He will cast down the fortified city, the great city; He will thrust it down, bring it to the ground, even to the dust.

26At that time they will sing a new song in the land of the house of Judah, “We have a strong city; salvation and mercy will be established upon her walls. 2 Open the gates, and let the righteous nation enter, who have kept the Torah with a perfect heart. 3 With a perfect heart they will keep peace; peace will be made for them, because they have trusted in Your Memra. 4 Trust in the Memra of the LORD forever and ever; for by the Memra you will be saved, who is the fear of the LORD, the mighty One to eternity. 5 For He will bring low the inhabitants of the high and strong city; He will bring her down, He will cast her to the ground, He will bring her down to the dust. 6 The feet will trample her down, the feet of the just, the soles of the feet of the poor, of the needy of the people. 7 The paths of the righteous are straight; You will establish the works of the ways of the just. 8 For the way of Your judgments, O LORD, we have hoped; to Your name and to the remembrance of You is the desire of our soul. 9 My soul desires to pray before You in the night; my spirit within me blesses You; for when Your judgments are prepared for the earth, those who dwell in the world will be taught to practice truth. 10 You have granted the wicked a reprieve, so that they might truly return to the Torah; but they did not return, all the days that they lived; they were to practice truth in the earth, but they dealt falsely; they will not regard the praise of Your glory, O LORD![28] 11 O LORD, when You are revealed in Your power to do good to those who fear You, there will be no light for the enemies of Your people; the wicked will see it and be put to shame. The vengeance of Your people will cover them; fire will consume Your enemies. 12 O LORD, You will ordain peace for us; for at all times, when we restrained ourselves from our sins, You were working for us. 13 O LORD our God, the nations have had dominion over us, being lords over us besides You; but we trust in Your Memra, we praise Your name. 14 They worship idols that do not live, their heroes who will not rise; therefore, when You visit their sins, You will make an end of them and make every memory of them perish. 15 You will reveal Yourself to gather the dispersed of Your people; You will bring back their captives. You will reveal Yourself in Your power to cast all the wicked into hell. 16 O LORD, in distress they remembered Your fear; in their trouble they were earnestly learning the teaching of Your Torah. 17 Like a woman with child who draws near the time of her delivery, who trembles and cries out in her pangs, so have we been, because we have sinned before You. 18 Distress swift as the wind has seized us, like a woman with child who draws near the time of her delivery; the inhabitants of the world have not brought deliverance; they have not tilled the earth, nor have they been able to perform any miracles. 19 You are He who makes the dead live; the bones of their dead bodies You will raise up. They will live and offer praise before You, all who were cast into the dust, because Your dew is the dew of light to those who keep Your Torah; but You will deliver the wicked into hell, to whom You had given power, because they have transgressed against Your Memra.” 20 Come, my people, produce for yourself good works that will protect you in the time of distress; hide yourself for a little moment, as it were, until the curse has passed away. 21 For the LORD is revealing Himself from the place of His Shekinah, to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their sins; and the earth will disclose the innocent blood that was shed in her, and will no longer cover her slain.

27At that time the LORD will punish with His great, mighty, and strong sword the king who has magnified himself like Pharaoh the first, and the king who has exalted himself like Sennacherib the second; and He will slay the king who is strong as the dragon that is in the sea.[29] 2 At that time the congregation of Israel, which is like a vineyard planted in a good land, will sing concerning that vineyard, 3 “I, the LORD, keep the covenant of their fathers with them, that I may not destroy them; but at the time they provoked me to anger, I gave them the cup of their punishment to drink; yet their sins were the cause of their punishment; nevertheless, my Memra will protect them by day and by night. 4 Many mighty works are before me. Is it not so? If the house of Israel would set their face to do my Torah, I would send my anger and my fury among the nations who are waging war against them, and I would destroy them, as the fire destroys the briers and the thorns together. 5 If they would lay hold on the words of my Torah, peace would be made with them; from now on peace would be made with them. 6 They will be gathered from the midst of their captivity and return to their country; there children will be born to the house of Jacob; those of the house of Israel will be fruitful and multiply, and their children’s children will fill the face of the world.” 7 Has He struck him (Judah and Israel) as He struck those who struck him? Or is he (Judah and Israel) slain according to the slaughter of those who are slain by Him (by God)? 8 With the measure with which you measured, they will measure to you; you sent them out and oppressed them. He devised a word against them; He prevailed against them in the day of wrath.[30] 9 By this, therefore, the sins of the house of Jacob will be forgiven; and this will be the full fruit of removing their sins, when they make all the stones of the idolatrous altar like chalk stones that are beaten to pieces; the sacred poles and the sun-images will not be raised up again. 10 But the fortified city will sit solitary; she will totter and be forsaken like a desert; the just will wage war against her, plunder her treasures, and make an end of her armies, so that none will go out. 11 Their armies will be cut off; and they will be ashamed on account of their works, which will be broken; women will enter the house of their idolatry and teach them, because they are a people of no understanding; therefore He who made them will not have mercy on them, and He who created them will show them no favor. 12 And at that time the slain of the LORD will be cast from the bank of the river Euphrates to the river of Egypt; and you will be brought near one to another, O sons of Israel. 13 And at that time the great trumpet will be blown, and those who had gone into captivity in the land of Assyria will come, and those who were cast into the land of Egypt, and they will worship before the LORD on the holy mountain at Jerusalem.

28Woe that He gave a crown to the proud and foolish prince of Israel, and that He gave a diadem to the wicked of the house of the sanctuary of His praise; those who are at the head of the fertile valley are struck down with wine. 2 Plagues, strong and mighty, are coming from the LORD, like a storm of hail, like a whirlwind, like a storm of mighty overflowing waters; so the nations will come upon them and lead them into captivity to another land, on account of the sins that are in their hands. 3 The crown of the pride of the foolish prince of Israel will be trampled underfoot. 4 And the diadem that He gave to the wicked of the house of the sanctuary of His praise, which is on the head of the fertile valley, will be like the first ripe fig before the summer; when one sees it, no sooner is it in his hand than he devours it. 5 At that time the Messiah of the LORD of hosts will be a crown of rejoicing and a crown of praise to the remnant of His people,[31] 6 a word of true judgment to those who sit in the house of justice, so that they may judge according to truth; and to give victory to those who go out into battle, to bring them back in peace to their homes. 7 But these too are drunk with wine and swallowed up by old wine; the priest and the scribe are drunk, by old wine they are swallowed up; because of wine they have gone astray, they are led after sweet food, their judges have gone astray. 8 For all their tables are full of polluted and loathsome food; they have not a spot free from plunder. 9 To whom was the Torah given? And to whom was the command given to understand wisdom? Was it not to the house of Israel, who were beloved above all nations and beloved above all the kingdoms? 10 Surely they were commanded to do the Torah, but what they were commanded they were not willing to do. The prophets prophesied to them that if they would repent it would be forgiven them, but they did not obey the words of the prophets; they walked after the desire of their soul, nor did they desire to do my Torah. They hoped to have idolatrous worship established among them, and they did not consider the worship of the house of my sanctuary; to worship in the house of my sanctuary was a small thing in their eyes, my Shekinah was a small thing in their eyes. 11 Because with feigned speech and with mocking language this people mocked the prophets who prophesied to them.[32] 12 The prophets said to them, “This is the house of the sanctuary, worship in it; and this is the inheritance in which there is rest.” But they would not accept instruction. 13 This will be the cup of their punishment, because they have transgressed the word of the LORD, and because they were commanded to do my Torah but would not do what they were commanded. Therefore they will be handed over to the nations who do not know the Torah, because they walked after the desire of their soul and had no delight in doing my will. Therefore they will hope for help at the time I bring distress upon them, but they will have no help or support. Because the house of my sanctuary was too small in their eyes to worship there, therefore they will be left as a small thing in the eyes of the nations among whom they will go into captivity, so that they may walk and stumble backward, and be broken and snared and taken. 14 Therefore hear the word of the LORD, O wicked men, rulers of this people who are in Jerusalem: 15 Because you say, “We have made a covenant with death and have made peace with the destroyer”; you say, when the blow of the enemy comes upon you like an overwhelming river, “It will not come upon us, because we have placed our confidence in a lie and have hidden ourselves under falsehood.” 16 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD, “I appoint a King in Zion, a King mighty, powerful, and awesome; I will make Him powerful, and I will strengthen Him,” says the prophet. But the righteous who believe these things will not be moved when distress comes. 17 And I will make judgment straight as a builder’s line, and justice as a plummet, because you would hide yourselves. And my justice will burn against the confidence of your lie; and because you would hide yourselves from the coming distress, the nations will lead you into captivity. 18 And your covenant with death will be destroyed, and your peace with the destroyer will not stand. When the stroke of the enemy comes upon you, it will be like an overwhelming river, and you will be trampled underfoot by them. 19 At the time of its passing by, it will lead you captive, because morning by morning it will pass by, by day and by night; and before the time of the curse has come, you will consider the words of the prophets. 20 For their strength will be diminished by reason of harsh slavery, and the government of the oppressor will increase their subjection. 21 For as the mountains trembled when the glory of the LORD was revealed in the days of King Uzziah, and in the wonders He performed for Joshua in the valley of Gibeon, taking vengeance on the wicked who had transgressed against His Memra, so He will be revealed to take vengeance on those who do works, strange works, and on those who worship with idolatrous worship. 22 But now do not deal wickedly, or your bonds will be made strong; for I have heard from the LORD, the God of hosts, of a full and final end decreed upon all the inhabitants of the land. 23 The prophet said, Listen and hear my voice; turn and hear my word. 24 The prophets prophesied at all times in order to teach, in case the ears of sinners might be opened and receive instruction. 25 Is it not so? If the house of Israel would set their faces to do the Torah and repent, then He would gather them from among the nations among whom they were dispersed, like dill and cumin that are scattered; and He would bring their offspring together according to their tribes, like seed of wheat in the uncultivated field, and barley in the appointed place, and spelt in the borders.[33] 26 All these things are an instruction of judgment, that they may know that our God shows them the right path in which they ought to walk. 27 For dill is not threshed with an iron threshing instrument, nor is a cart wheel rolled over the cumin; but dill is beaten out with a staff, and cumin with a rod. 28 Grain is threshed, yet they will not keep threshing it forever; but one drives the wheel of his cart over it, and separates the grain, and blows away the chaff. 29 This also comes forth from the LORD of hosts, who by the vast knowledge of His mind established the world; He multiplied His works in the beginning by His great wisdom.

29Woe to the altar, the altar that is built in the city in which David dwelt, because of the assembly of the armies that are gathering themselves together against her year by year, because the festivals will cease. 2 And I will distress the city in which the altar is, and she will be desolate and empty; and she will be surrounded before me with the blood of the slain, as the altar is surrounded all around with the blood of the holy sacrifices on the day of the festival. 3 And I will encamp against you with armies; I will build a fortified camp against you, and I will cast up a mound against you. 4 And you will be brought low, and you will speak from beneath the earth; your words will whisper from the dust, and your voice will come like that of a necromancer out of the ground; your words will whisper from the dust. 5 Moreover the multitude of those who scatter you will be like fine dust, and the tumultuous assembly of the mighty like chaff that passes away; and suddenly there will be a tumult. 6 You will be visited with thunder from the LORD of hosts, and with earthquake and a great noise, with storm and tempest and a flame of devouring fire. 7 And the multitude of all the nations that are gathered together against the city, and the altar that is in her, and all their camps and their armies that oppress her, will be like a phantom of the night. 8 And it will be as when a hungry man dreams that he is eating, but he awakes and is still hungry; or as when a thirsty man dreams that he is drinking, but he awakes and is faint and spent; so will the multitude of all the nations be that gather themselves together against the mountain of Zion. 9 Be astounded and amazed! Be terrified, and stare, and marvel! They are drunk, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with old wine. 10 Because the LORD will cast among you a spirit of confusion; He will hide the prophets from you, and He will hide the scribes and the teachers who teach you the instruction of the Torah. 11 And all the prophecy will be to you like the words of a sealed book, which if one gives to a man who is learned, saying, “Read this now,” then he will answer, “I am not able, because it is sealed.” 12 Or if the book is given to one who is not learned, saying, “Read this now,” then he will answer, “I am not learned.” 13 Therefore the LORD has said, “Because I am magnified by the mouth of this people, and with their lips they honor me, but their heart is far from my fear, and their fear of me is like the commandment of men teaching them; 14 therefore I will again strike this people with wonderful strokes; the wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the understanding of their prudent men will be hidden.” 15 Woe to those who plan to hide their counsel from before the LORD, whose works are done in darkness, and who say, “Who sees us, and who takes notice of our works?” 16 Why do you seek to pervert your works? Like the clay in the hand of the potter, so are you accounted before me. Is it possible that the clay should say to its maker, “You did not make me”? Or should the creature say to its creator, “You do not understand me”? 17 Is it not yet a very little while before Lebanon will turn into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field will be inhabited by many cities? 18 And at that time those who are like the deaf will hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind will see out of obscurity and out of darkness. 19 And those who have suffered affliction on account of the Memra of the LORD will increase their joy, and the poor of the sons of men will rejoice in the Memra of the Holy One of Israel. 20 For the oppressor has come to an end, and the plunderer is made to cease, and all who rose up early to act violently have come to an end, 21 those who declare the sons of men guilty on account of their words. The court of justice that is in the gate seeks to ensnare the one who reproves them with the words of the Torah; they turn aside the just by false judgment. 22 Therefore thus has the LORD said, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob, “Those of the house of Jacob will no longer be ashamed, nor will their faces any longer look dismayed. 23 But when those of the house of Jacob see the mighty deeds that I will do for their children, the kindness that I promised Abraham and his posterity after him in their own land, they will sanctify my name among them; they will say, ‘Holy is the Holy One of Jacob’; and concerning the God of Israel they will say, ‘He is mighty.’ 24 And those who were not taught by the spirit of understanding will have knowledge, and those who said, ‘All these things are nothing,’ will receive instruction.”

30Woe to the rebellious children, says the LORD, who take counsel, but not from my Memra, who form a plan but do not ask my prophets, so that they add sin to the sins of their soul. 2 who go down into Egypt but do not ask the words of my prophets, to strengthen themselves with the strength of Pharaoh and to trust in the shadow of Egypt. 3 Therefore the strength of Pharaoh will be your confusion, and confidence in the shadow of Egypt your disgrace. 4 For their princes were in Tanis, and their messengers have reached Tahpanhes. 5 All of them go to a people who will bring them shame, a people that will not profit them, who will be of no help and of no profit, but only a shame and a reproach. 6 They carry their goods on their beasts of burden by the way southward, into a land of oppression and distress, a place of the lion and the whelps of the lionesses, of serpents and flying vipers; they carry their treasures on the shoulders of their young donkeys, and they bring whatever is in their storehouses on the humps of camels, to a people that will not profit them. 7 And as for the Egyptians, their help is empty and worthless; therefore I will meet many of them slain; I will bring armed men upon them. 8 Now go, write it among them on a tablet, and inscribe it on the lines of a book, that it may be a witness before me in the day of judgment forever: 9 that this is a rebellious people, lying children, children who will not receive the instruction of the Torah of the LORD: 10 who say to the prophets, “Do not prophesy; and as for teachings, do not teach us the teaching of the Torah; speak to us with smooth words, relate to us deceptions; 11 Turn us from the right path, make us cease from tradition; put far away from us the Memra of the Holy One of Israel.” 12 Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, “Because you have despised this word and trust in deceit and oppression and rely on them, 13 therefore this sin will be to you like a city laid waste and made a ruinous heap, like a bulging wall whose collapse comes very suddenly. 14 And its collapse will be like the shattering of a potter’s clay vessel, shattered without mercy, and among its fragments there will not be found a potsherd to take fire from the hearth or to draw water from the cistern.” 15 For thus says the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, “I have said, ‘If you return to my Torah, you will have rest, and you will be redeemed; you will be quiet, and you will dwell in safety and be mighty’; but you would not.” 16 And you said, “No, but we will flee on horses”; therefore you will flee. And, “We will ride on swift horses”; therefore those who pursue you will be swift. 17 One thousand of you will flee at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five you will flee, until you are left like a signal-fire on the top of a mountain and like a beacon on a high hill. 18 And therefore the LORD will show you pity, and He who is mighty will have compassion on you; for the LORD is the God who does judgment; blessed are the righteous who wait for His salvation. 19 For the people of Zion will dwell in Jerusalem; you will weep no more. He will surely show you compassion; the voice of your prayer He will hear, and He will answer your plea. 20 And the LORD will give you the treasures of the enemy and the spoil of the oppressor, and He will no longer take away His Shekinah from the house of the sanctuary, and your eyes will see my Shekinah in the house of the sanctuary. 21 And your ears will hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the right way, walk in it, and do not turn from it to the right or to the left.” 22 And you will defile the covering of your idols of silver and the ornament of your molten images of gold; you will loathe them as one loathes the impurity of a menstruous woman; so you will loathe them. 23 Then He will give rain for your seed, with which you will sow the ground, and grain and fruit will increase in the land, and there will be sustenance and goodness; and at that time the just will be nourished from their cattle, with the marrow of the tender and the fat ones. 24 And the oxen and the donkeys with which they plow the ground will eat seasoned fodder that has been winnowed with the shovel and the fork. 25 And there will be on every high mountain and on every high and lofty hill rivers flowing with water, at the time of the ruin of the kings and their armies, in the day of the great slaughter, when the princes fall. 26 Moreover the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will shine in the future three hundred and forty-three times more brightly, like the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD will turn back the captivity of His people and heal the sickness caused by His blow.[34] 27 The Name of the LORD will be revealed, as the prophets of old prophesied concerning Him; His wrath is mighty and too heavy to bear. His curse will go forth from before Him upon the wicked, and His Memra like a consuming fire. 28 And His Memra is like an overwhelming river reaching to the neck; He will slay the mighty; He will surely shake the nations with the shaking of worthlessness, and there will be a bridle of error in the jaws of the peoples. 29 You will have a song as in the night, as in the night when the festival is sanctified, with joy of heart, as when they march with thanksgivings and the pipe to enter the holy mountain of the LORD, to appear before the mighty One of Israel. 30 And the LORD will proclaim the brightness of the voice of His Memra, and He will reveal the strength of His arm in the fury of His anger, in flames of fire, destroying the graven images with scattering, storm, and hailstones. 31 For through the voice of the Memra of the LORD the Assyrian will be broken, he who struck with his power. 32 And the LORD will bring down the vengeance of His might at every passing of their princes and mighty ones, even among them. The house of Israel will praise with tambourines and harps, because of the mighty war that will be waged for them against the nations. 33 For hell is made ready from eternity on account of their sins; the eternal King has prepared it deep and wide; a fiery pyre with abundance of fuel burns in it; the Memra of the LORD, like an overwhelming torrent of brimstone, will kindle it.[35]

31Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses and trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but do not rely on the Memra of the Holy One of Israel, nor seek instruction from the LORD. 2 And He also in His wisdom will bring evil because of what they are doing, and He will not let His words fail, but He will arise against the house of evildoers and against those who help the workers of a lie. 3 And the Egyptians are men, and none of them is mighty, and their horses are flesh and not spirit; and the LORD will deal the stroke of His power, and the helper will stumble and the one who is helped will fall, and all of them together will be destroyed. 4 For thus the LORD has said to me, “As the lion and the lion’s whelp growl over their prey, and when a multitude of shepherds is called out against him he is not afraid of their voice nor terrified at their tumult, so the kingdom of the LORD of hosts will be revealed, encamping on the mountain of Zion and on its hill.” 5 As a bird in flight, so the power of the LORD of hosts will be revealed; He will protect, He will deliver, He will save, and He will spare. 6 Return to the Torah, for you have multiplied sin, O sons of Israel! 7 At that time each man will reject the idols of his silver and the idols of his gold, which your hands have made for you as a god. 8 Then the Assyrian will fall by a sword not of man, and a sword not of a man will devour him; he will flee as from before those who slay with the sword, and his heroes will be given over to destruction. 9 And his princes will flee in fear, they will pass away, and his princes will be broken because of the miracle, says the LORD, whose splendor is in Zion for those who obey the Torah, and whose burning furnace of fire is in Jerusalem for those who transgress His word.

32A King will reign in truth, and the righteous will be magnified to execute just vengeance on the people. 2 And the just who were hidden because of the wicked, like those who hide themselves on account of a storm, will return and be magnified, and their instruction will be received quickly, like the waters that flow into a dry land, like the shadow of a great rock in a parched land. 3 And the eyes of the righteous will not be shut, and the ears of those who receive instruction will hear. 4 Even the heart of the rash will understand knowledge, and the tongue of those that was tied will be ready to speak plainly. 5 And the wicked man will no longer be called just, and he who transgresses against His Memra will not be called mighty. 6 For the wicked will speak wickedness, and in their heart they plot violence, to practice falsehood and to speak revolt against the LORD, to weary the soul of the righteous, who long for instruction as the hungry long for bread; and the words of the Torah, which are like water to one who is thirsty, they purpose to make cease.[36] 7 And the wicked, whose works are evil, take counsel with sinners to destroy the poor with lying words, and the cause of the needy in judgment. 8 But the righteous counsel truth, and in their truth they will be established. 9 You provinces that dwell at ease, arise, hear my voice; you cities that dwell in safety, listen to my word. 10 Those who dwell at ease will be troubled for days and years, because the grain is come to an end, and there is no fruit to gather. 11 Those who dwell at ease will be broken, those who dwell in safety will tremble; strip yourselves and make yourselves bare, and wrap sackcloth around your waist. 12 They beat the breast for the pleasant fields, for the fruit-laden vines. 13 Upon the land of my people thorns and thistles will come up, yes, in all the houses of joy in the fortified city. 14 For the house of the sanctuary will be laid waste, the noisy city will be desolate, in which they worship; the house of our strength and hiding place will be searched out, dug up, desolate and waste for a time. The place that was a house of joy and gladness for kings has now become a spoil for armies. 15 All these things will come upon us until refreshing comes to us from the face of Him whose Shekinah is in the highest heavens. The wilderness will become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field will be inhabited by many cities. 16 Then those who do justice will dwell in the wilderness, and those who do righteousness will inhabit the fruitful field. 17 And those who do righteousness will be at peace, and those who adorn righteousness will be in quietness, and they will be in safety forever. 18 And my people will dwell in their habitations in peace, and in their land in safety, and in their cities at ease. 19 And hail will descend and slay the armies of the nations, and their encampments will be laid desolate and come to an end. 20 Blessed are you, O just, who work out for yourselves good works; because you are like those who sow by watered places, sending the oxen to tread out the grain, and the donkeys to gather it in.

33Woe to him who comes to plunder you; will they not plunder you? And woe to him who comes to despoil; will they not despoil you? When you come to plunder, they will plunder you; and when you are weary of despoiling, they will despoil you. 2 O LORD, be merciful to us; we have hoped for Your Memra; be our strength every day, and our salvation in the time of distress. 3 At the sound of a tumultuous noise the peoples flee; because of the multitude of mighty deeds the kingdoms are scattered. 4 And the house of Israel will gather the treasures of the peoples, their enemies, as the locusts are gathered; they will be armed with the instruments of war, as those who are armed with a sling. 5 Mighty is the LORD, who makes His Shekinah dwell in the highest heavens, who has promised to fill Zion with those who do true justice and righteousness. 6 And whatever good You have promised to those who fear You, You will bring and establish it in its time: strength and salvation, wisdom and knowledge. For those who fear the LORD, the treasure of His goodness is prepared. 7 When You reveal Yourself to them, the messengers of the nations will cry out bitterly in the street; those who had gone out to proclaim peace will return to weep in bitterness of soul. 8 The highways lie desolate, the traveler ceases; because they have forgotten the covenant, they will be removed far from their cities; they have had no regard for the sons of men, and evil will come upon them. 9 The land mourns and is laid desolate; Lebanon is withered and shakes off its leaves; Sharon has become like a desert; Bashan and Carmel are laid desolate. 10 Now I will reveal myself, says the LORD; now I will lift myself up on high; now I will be exalted. 11 You, O peoples, have planned for yourselves plans of iniquity; you have worked for yourselves evil works; because your works are evil, my Memra will consume you, as a whirlwind consumes chaff. 12 And the peoples will be like the burning of fire, like thorns that are cut up and burned in the fire. 13 Hear, you righteous who have kept the Torah from of old, what I have done; and know, you sinners who have returned to my Torah, that my strength is near. 14 The sinners in Zion are afraid; terror has seized the wicked, who, when they were committing theft in their ways, said, “Who of us can dwell in Zion, in which the brightness of His Shekinah is like devouring fire? Who of us can sojourn in Jerusalem, where the wicked will be judged, to be delivered into hell, into everlasting burning?” 15 The prophet said, The just will live in it, everyone who walks in righteousness and speaks honest things, who keeps himself far from the mammon of iniquity, who keeps himself from oppressions, who restrains his hands from holding a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing of the shedding of innocent blood, and who shuts his eyes from looking at the workers of iniquity.[37] 16 His dwelling will be in a high and exalted place; in the house of the sanctuary his soul will be satisfied; his food will be sufficient; his waters will continue, like a fountain of water whose waters do not fail. 17 Your eyes will see the Shekinah of the King of the worlds in His beauty; you will look and see those who go down to hell. 18 Your heart will meditate on great things: Where are the scribes? Where are the rulers? Where are those who counted the towers? Let them come, if they are able to count the number of the slain of the chief of the camp of the mighty. 19 You will no longer see the government of a fierce people, a people whose language is so obscure that you cannot understand it, whose tongue stammers, because there is no understanding in them. 20 O Zion, you will see their fall; O city of our festivals, your eyes will see the consolation of Jerusalem in her prosperity and security, like a tent that is not taken down, whose pegs are never pulled up, and whose cords will not be broken. 21 Surely from there the power of the LORD will be revealed to do good to us, from the place where broad, overflowing rivers will flow, through which no fisherman’s boat will pass, nor will any large ship go through it. 22 For the LORD is our judge, who by His power brought us out of Egypt; the LORD is our teacher, who gave us the teaching of the Torah from Sinai; the LORD is our king, He will redeem us and execute for us the vengeance of judgment on the host of Gog. 23 At that time the people will be stripped of their strength and will be like a ship whose ropes are broken, with no strength in their mast, which is cut down so that it is not possible to spread a sail on it; then the house of Israel will divide the treasures of the peoples, the abundance of spoil and prey; and although the blind and the lame are left among them, they too will divide the abundance of spoil and prey. 24 From now on they will not say to the people who dwell around them, “I will return to the Shekinah.” (From you the evil plague has come upon us.) The people, the house of Israel, will be gathered together, and they will return to their land, their sins being forgiven.

34Come near, you nations, to hear; and listen, you kingdoms; let the earth hear, and the fullness of the world, and all who dwell in her. 2 For the wrath from before the presence of the LORD is upon all the nations, and slaughter upon all their hosts; He has condemned them and handed them over to the slaughter. 3 And their slain will be cast out, and their stench will rise from their carcasses, and the mountains will be melted with their blood. 4 And all the pleasant host of heaven will be dissolved, and they will be blotted out from beneath the heavens, as it is said concerning them in this book; and all their armies will come to an end, like the fading leaf from the vine and like the withering fig from the fig tree. 5 Because my sword is revealed in heaven, it will descend upon Edom, and upon the people whom I have condemned to judgment. 6 The sword before the presence of the LORD is filled with blood; it is gorged, it is gorged with the blood of kings and rulers, it is gorged with the kidneys of princes; because there is a slaughter before the LORD in Bozrah, and a great sacrifice in the land of Edom. 7 And the mighty men will be slain with them, and the rulers and the princes; and their land will be drenched with their own blood, and their dust made rich with their own fat. 8 For it is the day of vengeance before the presence of the LORD, the year of recompense, to take the vengeance of judgment on account of the shaming of Zion. 9 And the rivers of Rome will be turned into pitch, and her dust into brimstone, and the land will become burning pitch.[38] 10 By night and by day it will not be extinguished; her smoke will rise forever; from generation to generation she will lie waste; no one will pass through her to everlasting ages. 11 The pelican and the porcupine will inherit her, and the owls and the ravens will dwell in her; and the line of devastation will be stretched over her, and the plummet of desolation. 12 They said, “We are the sons of free men,” and they were not willing to accept a kingly government over them; and all her princes will come to nothing. 13 And thorns will spring up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in their fortified city; and she will become a haunt for dragons, a place for the daughter of the ostrich. 14 And wild beasts will meet with wild cats, and demons, each one calling to its companion; the night-creature will dwell there and find rest for itself. 15 And the hedgehog will make its nest there and breed there; partridges will chirp in the shady boughs; surely the vultures will be gathered there, each one with her mate. 16 Search from the book of the LORD and read: not one of them will be missing, none will lack her mate; for by His Memra they will be gathered together, and by His pleasure they will be brought together. 17 And He by His Memra has cast the lot for them, and by His will He has divided it among them by line; they will possess it forever; from generation to generation they will dwell in it.

35Those who dwell in the wilderness, in a thirsty land, will rejoice; and those who inhabit the desert will rejoice and will shine like the lilies. 2 They will greatly rejoice and be glad, with joy and gladness. The glory of Lebanon will be given to them, the splendor of Carmel and of Sharon. The house of Israel, to whom these things are promised, they will see the glory of the LORD, the beauty of our God. 3 The prophet said, Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. 4 Say to the fearful of heart that they may keep the Torah, “Be strong, and do not fear; your God will be revealed to take the vengeance of judgment; the LORD of retributions, the LORD will be revealed, and He will save you.” 5 Then the eyes of Israel will be opened, which were blind to the Torah, and their ears, which were as of the deaf, will hear and receive the words of the prophets. 6 Then, when they see the captives of Israel gathered to go up to their own land like the swift harts, and not tarrying, they will sing with their tongue, which has been tied, because then the waters will gush forth in the wilderness, and rivers in the plain. 7 Then the mirage will become pools of water, and the thirsty place springs of water; in the place where the dragons dwell, reeds and rushes will come up. 8 And a trodden way will be there, a straight one, and it will be called the way of holiness; the unclean will not pass over it, and the wayfaring men will not cease; the ignorant will not go astray. 9 There will not be there a king doing evil, and an oppressive governor will not pass over it; yes, they will not be found there; but the redeemed will walk there. 10 And the redeemed of the LORD will return, because they will be gathered from the midst of their captivity; and they will come to Zion with a song, and they will have everlasting joy, which will not cease; and a cloud of glory will overshadow their heads; joy and gladness will be found, and sorrow and sighing will cease from them, namely, from the house of Israel.

36Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of the house of Judah and took them. 2 And the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem, to King Hezekiah, with a great army. And he stood by the channel of the upper pool, on the highway to the launderers’ field. 3 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was appointed over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph, who was appointed over the records, came out to him. 4 And Rabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, What is this confidence in which you trust? 5 I say that your counsel and strength for war are but empty words. Now, in whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me? 6 Look, you trust in the support of this broken reed, in Pharaoh the king of Egypt; if a man leans on it, it will pierce his hand and wound him. So is Pharaoh the king of Egypt to all who trust in him. 7 But if you say to me, ‘We trust in the Memra of the LORD our God,’ is it not He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, saying to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar’? 8 And now make a pledge to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them. 9 How then can you turn back the face of one of the least of the princes, the servants of my master? Yet you trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen. 10 Have I now come up against this land to destroy it without the Memra of the LORD? The LORD said to me, ‘Go up against this land and destroy it.’” 11 Then Eliakim and Shebna and Joah said to Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in the Aramaic language, for we understand it; and do not speak to us in the language of Judah in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.” 12 But Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me to your master and to you to speak these words? Has he not sent me to the men who sit on the wall, who are doomed with you to eat their own dung and drink their own urine in the siege?” 13 Then Rabshakeh stood up and cried out with a loud voice in the language of Judah, saying, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! 14 Thus says the king, Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you. 15 And do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the Memra of the LORD, saying, ‘The LORD will surely deliver us; this city will not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.’ 16 Do not listen to Hezekiah; for thus says the king of Assyria, Make peace with me and come out to me, and let everyone eat from his own vine and from his own fig tree, and let everyone drink the water of his own cistern, 17 until I come and take you away to a land like your own, a land of grain and wine, a land of fields and vineyards. 18 Beware that Hezekiah does not deceive you, saying, ‘The LORD will deliver us.’ Has any of the gods of the nations delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? 19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? 20 Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their land from my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem from my hand?” 21 But they kept silent and answered him not a word, for the king’s command was, “Do not answer him.” 22 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was appointed over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph, who was appointed over the records, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the words of Rabshakeh.

37And when King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the sanctuary of the LORD. 2 And he sent Eliakim, who was appointed over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. 3 And they said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, This day is a day of distress, of reproach, and of disgrace; for distress has laid hold on us, like a woman who sits on the birthstool of a woman in labor but has no strength to bring forth. 4 Perhaps the words of Rabshakeh may be heard by the LORD your God, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to reproach the people of the living God; and He may take vengeance for the words that were heard before your God; therefore make supplication in prayer for the remnant that is left.” 5 So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah. 6 And Isaiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to your master, Thus says the LORD, Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed before me. 7 I will put a spirit within him, and he will hear a rumor and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.” 8 So Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria waging war against Libnah, for he had heard that he had departed from Lachish. 9 And Sennacherib heard it said concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, “He has come out to wage war against you.” And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, 10 “Thus you shall speak to Hezekiah, king of the tribe of the house of Judah, Do not let your God, in whom you trust, deceive you, saying, ‘Jerusalem will not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.’ 11 You have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, destroying them utterly; and do you imagine that you will be delivered? 12 Have the gods of the nations delivered those whom my fathers destroyed, Gozan and Haran and Rezeph, and the children of Eden who were in Telassar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim? Has he not removed them and carried them captive?” 14 And Hezekiah received the letters from the hands of the messengers and read them; and Hezekiah went to the house of the sanctuary of the LORD and spread them before the LORD. 15 And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD, saying, 16 “O LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel, whose Shekinah dwells above the Cherubim! You are the LORD, and there is none besides You in all the kingdoms of the earth; You have made the heavens and the earth. 17 It is manifest to You, O LORD; therefore judge. It has been heard by You, O LORD; therefore avenge! Take vengeance on account of all the words of Sennacherib, who has sent to reproach the people of the living God. 18 Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the provinces and their lands, 19 and have burned their gods in the fire; for they were not gods but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, and so they have destroyed them. 20 And now, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are the LORD; there is none besides You.” 21 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, Because you have prayed before me concerning Sennacherib the king of Assyria, 22 this is the word that the LORD has spoken concerning him, The kingdom of the congregation of Zion despises you and scorns you; the people who are in Jerusalem shake their head behind you. 23 Whom have you reproached, and against whom have you exalted yourself? Before whom have you lifted up your voice and raised your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel, because you have spoken words that are not right. 24 By your servants you have reproached the people of the LORD and have said, ‘By the multitude of my chariots I have come up against their fortified cities; and moreover I will seize the house of their sanctuary, and I will slay the most beautiful of their mighty ones and the choicest of their rulers, and I will subdue their fortress city, and I will destroy the multitude of their army. 25 I have dug cisterns and drunk water, and I have dried up all the waters of the deep rivers with the soles of the people who were with me.’ 26 Have you not heard long ago what I did to Pharaoh, king of Egypt? The prophets of Israel also prophesied concerning you, but you have not repented. I planned this against you long ago; I prepared it, and now I will bring it to pass, and it will be your ruin, because it will come against you like the raging of waves that destroy fortified cities. 27 Therefore their inhabitants had their strength cut off; they were dismayed and ashamed; they were like the grass of the fields, like the green grass, like the herb on the housetops, like grain blasted before it becomes an ear. 28 Your sitting down in counsel, and your going out to wage war, and your coming into the land of Israel are known to me, and your raging against me is known to me. 29 Because you are enraged against my Memra, and your tumultuous noise has come up before me, therefore I will put a ring in your nostril and a bridle on your lips, and I will turn you back by the way by which you came. 30 And this will be a sign to you: This year eat what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs from the same; and in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 31 And again the survivors of the house of Judah who are left will be like a tree that sends forth its roots downward and lifts its branches upward. 32 For the remnant of the righteous will go forth from Jerusalem, and the survivors of those who establish the Torah from Mount Zion; by the Memra of the LORD of hosts this will be done. 33 Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, He will not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shields, nor will he cast up a mound against it. 34 By the way that he came, by the same he will return, and he will not come into this city, says the LORD. 35 For I will defend this city to save it, for the sake of my Memra and for the sake of David my servant.” 36 Then the angel of the LORD went out and slew in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when they arose early in the morning, they were all dead corpses. 37 Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went away, and returned and dwelt at Nineveh. 38 And as he was worshipping in the temple of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons slew him with the sword, and they escaped into the land of Kardu; and Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.

38In those days Hezekiah was sick to the point of death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, came to him and said to him, “Thus says the LORD, Set your household in order, for you are dying and will not live.” 2 Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall of the house of the sanctuary and prayed before the LORD, 3 and said, “Hear my prayer, O LORD; remember, I beg You, how I have served before You in truth and with a perfect heart, and I have done what is right in Your eyes.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly. 4 Then the words of prophecy came from before the LORD to Isaiah, saying, 5 “Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father, Your prayer has been heard by me, your tears have been seen by me; I will add to your days fifteen years; 6 And I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city. 7 And this will be a sign to you from before the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that He has promised: 8 I will turn back the shadow on the hour-lines by which the sun has gone down on the dial of Ahaz, ten hours backward.” And the sun returned ten hours on the figure of the hour-lines by which it had gone down. 9 The writing of thanksgiving for the miracle that had been done for Hezekiah, the king of the tribe of the house of Judah, when he had been sick and was healed of his sickness. 10 I said in the sorrow of my days, I will go into the gates of the grave; but because He remembered me for good, an addition has been made to my years. 11 I thought, I will not appear again before the awesome God in the land of the house of His Shekinah, in which is length of life; and I will no longer serve before Him in the house of the sanctuary, from which joy goes forth to all the inhabitants of the earth; neither will I dwell in Jerusalem the holy city; my dwelling is cut down. 12 From the children of my generation my days are taken away; they are cut off and gone from me; they are folded up like a shepherd’s tent; my life is cut off like a weaver’s web; from the glory of my kingdom I have gone into captivity; my days and my nights are ended. 13 I roar until the morning like a lion that roars when it breaks the bones of a beast; so because of my sorrow all my bones are broken; my days and my nights have come to an end. 14 As a swallow chirps when it is caught, so I chirped; and I moan like a dove. I lifted up my eyes, that relief might come to me from before Him whose Shekinah is in the highest heavens: O LORD, hear my prayer; grant my petition. 15 What praise can I utter and speak to Him? For He has multiplied His kindness toward me. With what will I serve Him, and what will I render to Him for all the years He has added to my life and for delivering my soul from bitterness? 16 O LORD, You have said concerning all the dead that You will make them live, and You have made my spirit live before any of them; You have given life, You have made me to live. 17 To those who obey the Torah, peace will be multiplied before You; but You will bring bitterness to the wicked. Therefore, when I knew the day of my death, I poured out my tears in prayer before You; my bitterness was great, but You took pleasure in my life, not to destroy it, for You have cast all my sins far away from Your presence. 18 For those who are in the grave do not praise You, nor do the dead celebrate You, nor do those who go down into the pit of the place of Abaddon hope for Your salvation. 19 The living, the living will praise You, as I do this day; the fathers will make known Your might to their children, and they will confess, saying that all these things are truth. 20 The LORD has promised to save us; and we will sing the song of His praise all the days of our life in the house of the sanctuary of the LORD. 21 For Isaiah had said, “Let them take a lump of figs and lay it on the boil, and he will recover.” 22 And Hezekiah said, “What is the sign that I will go up to the house of the sanctuary of the LORD?”

39At that time Merodach-Baladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he had heard that he had been sick and had recovered. 2 And Hezekiah was glad of them and showed them the house of his treasures, the silver and the gold and the spices and the precious ointment, and all the house of his vessels, and everything that was found in his treasury; there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah did not show them. 3 Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and said to him, “What did these men say, and where did they come to you from?” And Hezekiah said, “They have come to me from a far country, from Babylon.” 4 Then he said, “What have they seen in your house?” And Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing in my treasures that I have not shown them.” 5 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the LORD of hosts. 6 The days are coming when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have treasured up until this day, will be carried away to Babylon; nothing will be left, says the LORD. 7 And your sons who will come forth from you will be in the palace of the king of Babylon.” 8 Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the LORD that you have spoken is good.” And he said, “For there will be peace and truth in my days.”

40O you prophets, prophesy comfort to my people, says your God. 2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and prophesy concerning her, that she will be filled with the people of the captivity, because her sins are forgiven, for she has received the cup of consolations from the LORD as if she had been struck twice for all her sins. 3 A voice of one crying in the wilderness, “Prepare the way before the people of the LORD; cast up a highway in the plain before the congregation of our God. 4 All the valleys will be raised up, and every mountain and hill will be made low; the rugged ground will become level, and the rough places a valley. 5 And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all the sons of flesh will see together, that by the Memra of the LORD it has been so decreed.” 6 The voice of one crying, “Prophesy!” He answered and said, “What will I prophesy? All the wicked are like grass, and all their strength like the chaff of the field. 7 The grass withers, its flower fades, because the spirit of the LORD blows upon it; surely the wicked among a people are considered like grass. 8 The wicked die, and their thoughts perish; but the word of our God will stand forever.” 9 Get up on a high mountain, O you prophets who bring good tidings to Zion; lift up your voice with strength, you who bring good tidings to Jerusalem; lift it up, do not be afraid; say to the cities of the house of Judah, “The kingdom of your God is revealed.” 10 The Lord GOD will be revealed, and the strength of the arm of His might will rule before Him; the reward of those who perform His word is with Him, because their works are manifest to Him. 11 He will feed those of His flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs with His arm and carry the tender ones in His bosom; He will gently lead those that give suck. 12 He who has promised these things will confirm them; He has spoken it, and He will do it; He in whose sight all the waters of the world are counted as a drop in the hollow of the hand, and the expanse of the heavens as if prepared with the span, and the dust of the earth as if measured in a measure, and the mountains as if weighed in scales, and the hills in a balance. 13 Who has directed the Holy Spirit in the mouth of all the prophets? Is it not the LORD? He makes known the words of His will to the righteous, the servants of His Memra. 14 I will make known wisdom to those who pray for it from Him, and I will teach them the way of justice; He will give the Torah to their sons, and He will make known to their sons’ sons the path of understanding. 15 The nations are like a drop from a bucket and are counted as the small dust of the balance; the isles are like fine dust that flies away. 16 And the trees of Lebanon are not enough for fire, nor the beasts in it enough for a burnt offering. 17 All nations are like nothing; their works are accounted before Him as nothing. 18 And whom do you think able to contend with God? And what likeness can you compare with Him? 19 The craftsman makes an image, and the goldsmith overlays it with gold, and the silversmith fastens it with silver chains. 20 He cuts a wild ash from the forest, which rot will seize; he seeks out a skilled craftsman to set up the image, so that it will not be moved. 21 Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has not the work of creation been declared to you in its order from the beginning? Have you not understood that you ought to fear Him who created the foundations of the earth? 22 He makes the Shekinah of His glory dwell in exalted strength, and all the inhabitants of the earth are in His sight like locusts; He stretched out the heavens like a small thing and spread them out like the tent of the glory of the house of the Shekinah. 23 He gives princes over to weakness; the judges of the earth He brings to nothing. 24 Although they multiply, although they increase, although their children become great in the earth, yet He will send His wrath among them, and they will be put to shame, and His Memra will scatter them like the whirlwind the chaff. 25 To whom, then, will you liken me? And to whom will you equal me? says the Holy One. 26 Lift up your eyes on high and see, that you may fear Him who created these things, who brings forth the host of the heavens by number; He calls them all by their name; because of the combination of forces and the might of His power, not one is missing from its orbit. 27 Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD, and my cause is removed from my God”? 28 Have you not known? Have you not heard that the everlasting God, the LORD who created the foundations of the earth, does not grow faint or weary? There is no end to His wisdom. 29 He gives wisdom to the righteous who long for the words of the Torah, and to those who have no strength He multiplies strength. 30 And the wicked youths will grow faint and weary, and the impious young men will utterly fall. 31 But those who hope for the salvation of the LORD will be gathered together from the midst of their captivity, and will increase their strength, and their youth will be renewed like the sprout that springs up; they will hasten on the wings of eagles and not be weary; they will walk and not faint.

41Listen to my word, you islands, and let the kingdoms increase their strength; let them come near, then let them speak; let us approach one another for judgment. 2 Who openly brought Abraham from the east? He brought the chosen of the righteous in truth to his place. He delivered up nations before him and broke mighty kings in pieces; he cast the slain down like the dust before his sword, and pursued them like stubble before his bow. 3 He pursued them and passed by safely; the roughness of the path will not affect his feet. 4 Who has promised these things and established them? Who has spoken, and it was done? And who has set the generations in their order from the beginning? I, the LORD, I created the world from the beginning; ages upon ages are mine, and besides me there is no God. 5 The isles will see and be afraid; those who are at the ends of the earth will tremble; they will draw near and come. 6 Let everyone help his neighbor, and let everyone say to his brother, “Be of good courage.” 7 Will they not be put to shame in their works? For the craftsman encourages the silversmith, and he who strikes with the great hammer encourages him who strikes with the small; one says, “It is time for the soldering, it is ready”; and he fastens it with nails, so that it will not be moved. 8 But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, in whom I delight, the seed of Abraham my friend, 9 I have brought you out of the families of the earth, I have chosen you out of a kingdom, and I have said to you, “You are my servant; I delight in you, and I will not cast you away.” 10 Fear not, for my Memra will be your support; do not be dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with the right hand of my truth. 11 All the nations that are incensed against you will be ashamed and put to shame; they will be as nothing, and those who strive with you will perish. 12 You will seek them and not find them, those who contended with you; they will be as nothing, and the men who stirred themselves up to make war with you will be less than nothing. 13 For I am the LORD your God, who holds you fast by your right hand, who says to you, “Fear not, my Memra will be your help.” 14 Fear not, O tribes of the house of Jacob, O seed of Israel; my Memra will be your help, says the LORD, and your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. 15 I will make you a mighty threshing instrument full of sharp edges; you will slay the nations, you will consume the kingdoms, you will make them like chaff. 16 You will winnow them, and the wind will carry them away, and my Memra will scatter them as the whirlwind scatters the chaff; but as for you, you will rejoice in the Memra of the LORD, you will glory in the Holy One of Israel. 17 The poor and the needy long for instruction as the thirsty long for water, but do not find it; their spirit faints in affliction. I, the LORD, will hear their prayer; I, the God of Israel, will not cast them off. 18 I will gather their captives from the midst of the nations, and I will lead them in the right path; I will open for them rivers in the riverbeds, and fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the desert pools of water, and the thirsty land springs of water. 19 I will put cedars, acacias, myrtles, and oil trees in the wilderness; I will make the fir tree, the elm, and the box tree grow in the desert together, 20 so that they may see and know and put my fear in their heart, and may consider together, that the might of the LORD has done this, and the Holy One of Israel has created it. 21 Produce your case, says the LORD; bring forth your arguments, says the King of Jacob. 22 Let them approach and show us what will happen to us; let them declare the former things, what they were, that we may consider and know their outcome; or let them declare to us the things that are to come. 23 Declare the things that are to come afterward, that we may know whether you worship idols in which there is any profit, whether they are able to do good or to do evil, that we may consider and argue together. 24 You are nothing, and your works are to no purpose; that in which you delight is an abomination. 25 I will certainly bring a king who is mightier than the north wind, and he will go forth like the going forth of the sun in might from the east; I will strengthen him by my name, and he will come and trample the rulers of the nations underfoot, as those who trample the dust underfoot, as the potter who treads the clay. 26 Who has declared this from the beginning, that we should know it, and beforehand, that we may say, It is true? There was none who foretold it, none who declared it, none who heard your words. 27 The words of consolation that the prophets prophesied of old concerning Zion, they will come to pass! And to Jerusalem I will give one who brings good tidings. 28 And it was made known to me that there was no man whose works were good, and among these there was none who would take counsel, that I should ask them and they would answer a word. 29 All of them are nothing, and their work less than nothing; their thoughts are plunder and destruction.

42Here is my servant, the Messiah, whom I bring near, my chosen in whom one delights; by my Memra I will put my Holy Spirit upon Him, and He will reveal my judgment to the nations. 2 He will not cry aloud, nor raise a clamor, and He will not lift up His voice in the street. 3 The meek, who are like a bruised reed, He will not break; and the poor, who are like a glimmering wick, He will not quench; He will bring forth judgment to truth. 4 He will not faint nor be weary, until He has established judgment in the earth; and the isles will wait for His Torah. 5 Thus says the God of eternity, who created the heavens and suspended them, who founded the earth and gave breath to its inhabitants, even to the people on it, and spirit to those who walk in it. 6 “I, the LORD, I will make You grow in truth, and will hold Your hand, and I will direct You, and give You for a covenant of the people, for a light of the nations, 7 to open the eyes of the house of Israel, who are blind to the Torah, to bring back their captivity from among the nations, where they are like prisoners, and to redeem them from the servitude of the kingdoms, being shut up like those who are bound in darkness. 8 I am the LORD; that is my name; and my glory, in which I am revealed to you, I will not give to another people, nor my praise to the worshippers of images. 9 The former things have come to pass, and new things I declare; I tell you of them before they come to pass.” 10 Sing to the LORD a new song, proclaim His praise from the ends of the earth, you who go down to the sea and its fullness, the isles and their inhabitants. 11 Let the wilderness praise Him, and the cities that are in it, the villages that inhabit the wilderness of the Arabians; let the dead praise Him when they go forth from their long homes; from the tops of the mountains let them lift up their voice. 12 Let them ascribe glory to the LORD and declare His praise in the islands. 13 The LORD will be seen to do mighty things; He will reveal Himself in anger to do a mighty work by the word of His wrath; He will reveal Himself to His enemies by His might in an earthquake. 14 I have given them a long reprieve, if only they would return to my Torah; but they did not return. My judgment will be revealed upon them like the pains of a woman in labor; they will be destroyed and come to an end together. 15 I will lay waste mountains and hills and dry up all their herbs; I will make the rivers into islands, and I will dry up the pools. 16 And I will lead the house of Israel, who are like the blind, in a way they did not know; in paths they have not learned I will lead them; I will make darkness light before them, and the rugged place a plain. These things I will do for them, and I will not forsake them. 17 They will be turned back, they will be ashamed, those who worship images, who say to the molten images, “You are our gods.” 18 You wicked, who are like the deaf, have you no ears? Hear! And you sinners, who are like the blind, have you no eyes? 19 Is it not so? If the wicked and the sinners to whom I have sent my prophets will repent, they will be called my servants; but the wicked will be paid with vengeance for their sins; yet if they will repent, they will be called the servants of the LORD. 20 You see many things, but you do not observe; your ears are opened, but you do not receive instruction. 21 The LORD delights in justifying Israel; He will magnify those who obey His Torah, and He will strengthen them. 22 But this is a people robbed and plundered; all their young men are covered with shame and shut up in prison-houses; they have become a prey, and there is no one who delivers; a spoil, and no one says, “Restore.” 23 Who is there among you that will listen to this? Who will pay attention and consider for the time to come? 24 Who gave Jacob over for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers? Was it not the LORD? Because they have sinned against Him, and they would not walk in His righteous paths before Him, nor would they receive the instruction of His Torah. 25 Therefore He poured upon them the fury of His anger and brought upon them the strength of His warriors, and slew them all around, and they did not know it; and they ruled over them, and they did not take His fear to heart.

43But now, thus says the LORD who created you, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel, “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you, who are mine, by your name. 2 For at the first, when you passed through the Red Sea, my Memra was your support. Pharaoh and the Egyptians, who were as many as the waters of the river, did not prevail against you. And again, when you came among nations who were as mighty as fire, they did not prevail against you; and kingdoms that were strong as a flame did not destroy you;[39] 3 Because I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I gave Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in your place. 4 Ever since I loved you, you were precious; I loved you dearly, and I gave nations instead of you, and kingdoms for your soul. 5 Fear not, for my Memra will be your support; I will bring your children from the east, I will bring together your captivity from the west.[40] 6 I will say to the north, ‘Give them up’; and to the south, ‘Do not keep them back’; bring my sons from afar, and the captivity of my people from the ends of the earth. 7 All these things will come to pass for the sake of your righteous fathers, on whom my name was called; for my glory I created them. I will restore their captivity, and I will work wonders for them. 8 When I brought my people out of Egypt, they were like the blind, although they had eyes, and like the deaf, although they had ears. 9 Let all the nations be gathered together, let the kingdoms be brought together; who among them can declare this and give us the joyful tidings of old? Let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified; let them hear and speak the truth. 10 You are my witnesses, says the LORD, and my servant, the Messiah, in whom is my delight, so that you may know and believe in me and understand that I am He who was from the beginning; ages upon ages are mine, and besides me there is no god.[41] 11 I, even I, am the LORD, and besides me there is no savior. 12 I, I have declared to Abraham your father what would come to pass; I, I redeemed you out of Egypt, as I swore to him between the pieces; and I, I made you hear the teaching of my Torah from Sinai; and you are still alive, when there was no strange god among you; you are my witnesses, says the LORD, that I am God.[42] 13 From eternity I am He, and there is none that can deliver out of my hand; I will do it, and who can turn it back?” 14 Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, “Because of your sins I led you captive to Babylon; but I will lay them all low with their oars, the Chaldeans in the ships of which they boast. 15 I am the LORD, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.” 16 Thus says the LORD, “I am He who prepared a way in the sea and a path in mighty waters, 17 I who brought out the chariots and horses and a great host, much people; they were swallowed up together, they did not rise, they were extinguished, snuffed out like a glimmering wick. 18 Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. 19 I am making a new thing, and now it will be revealed; will you not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. 20 They will honor me, when I make the desert into habitable provinces, and the places where the dragons and the daughters of the ostrich dwell; because I will give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to the captives of my people, in whom I delight. 21 This people I have prepared for my service; they will declare my praise. 22 It has been said by the prophets that you of the house of Jacob have not gathered together for my worship, but that you were weary of the teaching of my Torah, O Israel. 23 You have not brought me the lambs of your burnt offerings, and with your holy sacrifices you have not honored me. I have not made you multiply offerings, nor have I burdened you with frankincense. 24 You have not bought for me the aromatic reed with silver, nor have you anointed my altar with the fat of your holy sacrifices; but you have multiplied your sins before me, you have burdened me with your iniquities. 25 I, even I, am He who forgives your sins for the sake of my name, and your sins will not be remembered.[43] 26 Speak now, let us plead together; state your case, that you may justify yourself, if you are able to do so. 27 Your first father sinned, and your teachers rebelled against my Memra. 28 Therefore I profaned the princes of the sanctuary, and I gave Jacob over to the slaughter, and Israel to reproaches.”

44Yet now hear, O Jacob my servant, and Israel whom I have chosen. 2 Thus says the LORD, your Maker, and He who formed you from the womb, who will help you, “Fear not, O Jacob my servant, and you, Israel, whom I have chosen. 3 For as waters are poured upon the thirsty land and set flowing upon the dry ground, so will I give my Holy Spirit to your children, and my blessing to your children’s children.” 4 The righteous will grow, tender and delicate as the flowers of the grass, like a tree that sends forth its roots by the streams of waters. 5 This one will say, “I am one of those who fear the LORD”; and another will pray in the name of the God of Jacob; this one will present an offering before the LORD and draw near in the name of Israel. 6 Thus says the King of Israel and His Redeemer, the LORD of hosts, “I am He who was from the beginning; eternities of eternities are mine, and besides me there is no God. 7 Who like me can proclaim this, declare it, and set it in order before me, from the time that I appointed the ancient people? Let them declare to us the things that are coming and that will come. 8 Fear not, neither be afraid; have I not told you from that time, and declared it? You also are my witnesses, that there is no God besides me, and there is none strong except him to whom strength is given by me.” 9 Those who make images are all of them worthless, and they worship what does not profit them; and they are witnesses against themselves, that they do not see, nor know, so that they will be ashamed. 10 Whoever makes a god or a molten image, it is for no purpose. 11 All its worshippers will be ashamed, and the working craftsmen are only men; let them all be gathered together, let them stand up; they will fear and be put to shame together. 12 The smith makes an axe out of iron, and blows the coals in the fire, and makes it firm with the hammer, and works it with the power of his strength; but when he who works it is hungry and does not eat bread, he has no strength; and if he is thirsty and drinks no water, he faints. 13 The carpenter stretches out the line, he applies the plummet to it, he carves it with a knife, and he dovetails it together, and he makes it after the likeness of a man, according to the beauty of a woman, that it may remain in the house. 14 He hews for himself cedars, and takes the scarlet oak and the chestnut, and seasons them. He plants the ash among the trees of the forest, and the rain nourishes it. 15 Then it serves a man for burning; he takes some of it and warms himself, he kindles it and bakes bread; he also makes it a god and worships it, he forms it into an image and prays to it. 16 He burns half of it in the fire; with the other half he eats meat, he roasts a roast and is satisfied; he also warms himself and says, “Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire.” 17 And the rest of it he makes into a god, his idol; he bows down to it and becomes servile to it, and prays to it and says, “Deliver me, for you are my god.” 18 They do not know, nor do they understand; for their eyes are shut tight, so that they cannot see, and their heart, so that they cannot understand. 19 And no one considers in his heart, nor has he knowledge or understanding to say, “Half of it I have burned in the fire, I have also baked bread on its coals, I have roasted meat and eaten it; and shall I make the rest of it a god? Shall I bow myself down to the stock of a tree?” 20 His god is partly ashes; his undiscerning heart has led him astray, so that he cannot deliver his soul or say, “Is it not a lie that I hold in my right hand?” 21 Remember these things, O Jacob and Israel, for you are my servant; I have formed you to serve me, that you, Israel, should not forget my fear. 22 I have blotted out your transgressions like a thick cloud, and your sins like a cloud that vanishes away; return to my worship, for I have redeemed you. 23 Sing, O heavens, for the LORD has worked redemption for His people; rejoice, O foundations of the earth; break out in praise, O mountains, O forest and all the trees in it! For the LORD has redeemed Jacob and will glorify Himself in Israel. 24 Thus says the LORD, who has redeemed you and who formed you from the womb, “I am the LORD who makes all things, who suspended the heavens by my Memra, who laid the foundations of the earth by my strength; 25 who frustrates the signs of the liars and makes diviners mad, who turns wise men backward and brings their knowledge into contempt; 26 who confirms the word of His righteous servants and performs the counsel of His messengers; who says to Jerusalem, ‘You will be inhabited,’ and concerning the cities of the house of Judah, ‘They will be built,’ and her ruined places I will raise up; 27 who says to Babylon, ‘Be desolate,’ and I will dry up your rivers; 28 who promises Cyrus that He will give him a kingdom, and that he will fulfill all my pleasure, even saying to Jerusalem, ‘You will be built, and the temple will have its foundation laid.’”

45Thus says the LORD to His anointed, to Cyrus, whom I hold firm by his right hand, to subdue nations before him; and I will loosen the loins of kings, to open the doors before him, and the gates will not be shut. 2 “My Memra will go before you; I will level the rough places; I will break in pieces the doors of brass and cut through the bars of iron. 3 And I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden treasures, that you may know that I, the LORD, who called you by your name, am the God of Israel. 4 For the sake of Jacob my servant and Israel my chosen, I have called you by your name; I have guided you, though you have not known that you should fear me. 5 I am the LORD, and there is no other; there is no God besides me; I have supported you, though you have not known that you should fear me; 6 that they may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that I am the LORD, and there is no other. 7 Who prepares the light and creates darkness, makes peace and creates punishment for evil; I, the LORD, do all these things. 8 Let the heavens drop down from above, and the clouds flow with good; let the earth open itself, and the dead live, and let righteousness be revealed together; I, the LORD, have created them.” 9 Woe to him who thinks to strive against the words of his Creator, and trusts that the images of a potter will do him good, which are made out of the dust of the earth. Is it possible that the clay could say to the one who works it, “You did not make me?” or your work could say, “He has no hands?” 10 Woe to him who says to his father, “What are you begetting?” and to his mother, “What are you bringing forth?” 11 Thus says the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and He who formed him, “You question me about things concerning my people, which are to come to pass; and will you command me concerning the work of my power? 12 It is I who made the earth by my Memra, and I created man upon it; it is I who suspended the heavens by my power, and I laid the foundation of all their hosts. 13 It is I who will surely bring him forth publicly, and all his paths I will direct; he will build my city, and he will let the captives of my people go, not for a price nor for money,” says the LORD of hosts. 14 Thus says the LORD, “The wealth of Egypt, and the merchandise of Ethiopia and of the men of the Sabeans, the men of trade, will come to you, and they will be yours; they will walk according to your command; they will pass along in chains, and they will bow down to you and make supplication to you, saying, ‘Surely God is in you, and there is no God whatever besides Him.’” 15 Truly You are He who makes Your Shekinah dwell in the highest heaven, O God of Israel, the Savior! 16 They will all be ashamed and put to shame; the worshippers of images will walk in confusion. 17 Israel will be saved by the Memra of the LORD with an everlasting salvation; you will not be ashamed nor put to shame forever, for ages upon ages. 18 For thus says the LORD who created the heavens, He who laid the foundation of the earth and made it, is God; He formed it; He did not create it in vain, but He formed it that the sons of man should multiply upon it. “I am the LORD, and there is no other. 19 I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth; I did not say to the seed of the house of Jacob, ‘Seek me reverently in vain’; I, the LORD, speak the truth, declaring upright things.” 20 Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, you who have escaped of the nations; they know nothing, those who carry about their wooden images and pray to a god who cannot save. 21 Tell and draw near; yes, take counsel together; who has declared this from ancient time? who has told it from of old? Have not I, the LORD? And there is no God whatever besides me, a just God and a Savior; there is none but I. 22 Turn to my Memra and be saved, all you who are at the ends of the earth; for I am the LORD, and there is no other. 23 I have sworn by my Memra, the word has gone forth in righteousness from my presence and will not fail, that before me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear. 24 Surely, He has promised to bring me righteousness and strength by the Memra of the LORD; in His Memra they will offer praise, and all the nations that are incensed against His people will be ashamed. 25 In the Memra of the LORD all the seed of Israel will be justified and will glory.

46Bel is bowed down, Nebo is cut down. Their images are in the likeness of serpents and beasts. The burdens of your idols are heavy upon those who carry them, because they are exhausted. 2 They are cut off, yes, they are altogether cut to pieces, and they were not able to deliver those who carried them; and their worshippers have gone into captivity. 3 Listen to me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, who are beloved above all nations, yes, beloved above all kingdoms. 4 Even to eternity I am He, and my Memra will endure for ages upon ages. It is I who created all men, and I scattered them among the nations; yes, I will forgive their sins, and I will pardon. 5 To whom will you liken me and equal me and compare me in truth? 6 The people collect gold out of the bag and weigh silver in the balance, and hire a goldsmith, and he makes it a god; they fall down, yes, they do it reverence. 7 They bear it on the shoulder, they carry it and set it in its place, and it stays there; it cannot move from its place; yes, one cries out to it, but it does not answer, nor save him out of his distress. 8 Remember this and be strong; take it to heart, O rebels! 9 Remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no God whatever besides me, 10 declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, “My counsel will stand, and I will do all my pleasure;” 11 who has promised to gather together the captivity from the east, to bring openly, like a swift bird, the sons of Abraham my chosen, from a distant land; yes, I have promised it, and I will bring it to pass; I have ordained it, and I will do it. 12 Listen to my Memra, you stout-hearted, who are far from righteousness. 13 My righteousness is near, it is not far off, and my salvation will not delay; and I will place salvation in Zion, and my glory in Israel.

47Come down and sit in the dust, O kingdom of the congregation of Babylon; sit on the ground, there is no throne of glory, O kingdom of the Chaldeans; for you will no longer be called tender and delicate. 2 Receive this calamity and go into servitude; put away the glory of your kingdom; your princes are overthrown, the people of your armies are scattered, they have vanished away like the waters of the river. 3 Your nakedness will be uncovered, your shame will be seen; I will take full vengeance on you, and I will not accept the intercession of the children of men. 4 As for our Redeemer, the LORD of hosts is His name, the Holy One of Israel. 5 Sit in silence and go into darkness, O glory of the kingdom of the Chaldeans; for you will no longer be called the mighty one of the kingdoms. 6 I was angry with my people, I profaned my inheritance and gave them into your hand; you had no compassion on them, you made your rule over the aged very cruel. 7 And you said, “I will be the mighty one of kingdoms forever,” so that you did not lay these things to your heart, nor remember the end of them. 8 Therefore hear this now, O voluptuous one, who dwells securely, who says in her heart, “I am, and there is none else besides me; I will not sit as a widow, nor will I know the loss of children.” 9 But these two things will come to you, in an appointed time, in one day: the loss of children and widowhood; they will come upon you in their fullness, in spite of the multitude of your sorceries, in spite of the great strength of your enchantments. 10 For you have trusted in your wickedness; you have said, “No one sees me.” Your wisdom and your knowledge have corrupted you, and you have said in your heart, “I am, and there is none else besides me.” 11 Therefore evil will come upon you; you will not know how to charm it away; distress will fall upon you, and you will not be able to remove it; a tumult will come upon you suddenly, unawares. 12 Persist now in your enchantments and in the multitude of your sorceries, in which you have labored from your youth; perhaps you will be able to prevail. 13 You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels. Let them now stand up and save you, those who are familiar with the zodiac of the heavens, who gaze at the stars, who make known the appointed seasons, deceiving you, saying, “Thus it will happen to you each month.” 14 They will be weak as stubble; the nations that are as strong as fire will consume them; they will not deliver themselves from the hand of the slayers; there will be no remnant of them, nor any who escape, not even a place in which one might save himself. 15 So will the workers of your lies be to you, with whom you have labored from your youth; the princes of your power will go into captivity, each one straight before his face; none will save you.

48Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel and have come forth from the stock of Judah, with whom He made a covenant in the name of the LORD, the God of Israel, that the remembrance of them should not cease. Will not His Memra stand in truth and righteousness? 2 For their portion is in the holy city, and their confidence is in the God of Israel; the LORD of hosts is His name. 3 I declared the former things from the beginning; they have gone forth from my Memra, and I announced them; suddenly I will do them, and they will come to pass. 4 I knew that you would be a rebel, and your neck would be as hard as iron, and your brow strong as brass. 5 Therefore I declared these things to you from the beginning; before they came to pass I announced them to you, so that you would not say, “My idol has done them, and my molten image has prepared them.” 6 Have you heard whether that which was revealed to you was ever revealed to any people? And as for you, will you not declare it? I have shown you new things from this time, and hidden things that you did not know. 7 They are created now, and not of old; and before the day of their coming to pass I have not announced them, so that you would not say, “See, I knew them.” 8 You did not listen to the words of the prophets; you did not accept the instruction of the Torah; you did not incline your ear to receive the words of the blessings and curses of my covenant, which I made with you at Horeb; for it was manifest to me that you would deal utterly falsely, and would be called a rebel from the womb. 9 For my name’s sake I will defer my anger, and for my praise I will spare you, so as not to destroy you. 10 I have refined you, but not in the crucible of silver; I tested you in the distress of poverty. 11 For my name’s sake, for the sake of my Memra, that it may not be profaned, I will do it, and my glory, in which I have revealed myself to you, I will not give to another people.[44] 12 Listen to my Memra, you who are of the house of Jacob and Israel, my called: I am He who was of old; yes, ages upon ages are mine, and besides me there is no God. 13 Yes, by my Memra I laid the foundation of the earth, and by my might I suspended the heavens; when I call to them, they stand up together. 14 All of you, assemble yourselves and hear: who among them has declared these things? Ever since the LORD loved Israel, He will do His pleasure on Babylon, and He will reveal the strength of His arm on the Chaldeans. 15 I, by my Memra, made a covenant with Abraham your father; yes, I called him, I brought him into the land of the place of my Shekinah, and I prospered his way. 16 Come near to my Memra; hear this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; at the time when the nations separated themselves from fearing me, at that time I brought Abraham your father to my service. The prophet says, “And now the Lord GOD, and His Memra, has sent me.” 17 Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you what will profit you, who leads you in the way you should walk. 18 If you had listened to my commandments, your peace would surely have been like the overflowing of the river Euphrates, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea. 19 Your seed would surely have been as numerous as the sand, and your children’s children as its grains; the name of Israel would not have ceased nor been destroyed from before me forever.” 20 Go forth from Babylon, flee from the province of the land of the Chaldeans; declare with a voice of singing, bring the joyful tidings of this, bring it to the ends of the earth; say, “The LORD has redeemed His servants of the house of Jacob.” 21 He will not let them thirst in the desert; He will guide them; He will cause water to flow for them from the rock; yes, He will cleave the rock, and the waters will gush out. 22 There is no peace, says the LORD, for the wicked.

49Listen, O isles, to my Memra, and pay attention, O kingdoms, from afar; the LORD called me before I was; He made mention of my name from my mother’s womb. 2 And He has put His words in my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of His power He has protected me, and He has made me like a choice arrow hidden in the quiver. 3 And He said to me, “You are my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified.” 4 And as for me, I said, “I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and emptiness; yet my cause is known to the LORD, and the reward of my work is before my God.” 5 And now, says the LORD, who formed me from the womb to be a perfect servant before Him, to bring back the house of Jacob to His service, and Israel will be brought to fear Him, and we will be glorious before the LORD, and the Memra of my God will be my support; 6 and He said, “Is it too small a thing for you that you should be called my servants, to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the captivity of Israel? I will also give you for a light to the nations, to be my salvation to the ends of the earth.” 7 Thus says the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel and His Holy One, to those who are despised among the nations, to those who are scattered among the kingdoms, to those who are servants to rulers, “Kings will look at them, and princes will rise up and fall prostrate, because of the LORD who is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel, and He will delight in you.” 8 Thus says the LORD, “At the time when you do my will, I hear your prayer, and in the day of distress I uphold you with salvation and support; for I will maintain you, and I will give you for a covenant with the people, to raise up the righteous who lie in the dust, to give as an inheritance the desolate heritages, 9 saying to those who are prisoners among the nations, ‘Go forth’; to those who are kept back in darkness among the kingdoms, ‘Show yourselves to the light.’ They will dwell along all the paths, and by all the rivers will be the place of their dwelling.” 10 They will not hunger nor thirst, neither will the heat nor the sun strike them; for He who has mercy on them will guide them, and He will lead them by the springs of water. 11 And I will make all the mountains a trodden path like a way before them, and the footpaths will be raised up. 12 Behold, these will come from far away; and look, these from the north and from the west, and these from the land of the south. 13 Sing, O heavens, and be joyful, O earth; break out, O mountains, with praise; for the LORD will comfort His people and will have mercy on His afflicted. 14 But Zion said, “The LORD has taken His Shekinah from me, and the LORD has cast me away.” 15 Is it possible that a mother can forget her child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? The congregation of Israel answered and said, “If there is no forgetfulness with Him, perhaps He will not forget that I made a calf of gold?” The prophet said to her, “Yes, these things will be forgotten.” And she said to him, “If there is forgetfulness with Him, perhaps it will be forgotten that I said at Sinai, ‘We will do and obey’?” He answered and said to her, “My Memra will not cast you off.” 16 Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me. 17 Those who will build your desolate places will make haste; your destroyers and those who made you waste will go forth from you. 18 Lift up your eyes all around, O Jerusalem, and see; all the children of the people of your captivity are gathered together and come to you. As I live, says the LORD, all these will be to you like a garment of glory, and their works in the midst of you like the ornament of a bride. 19 For your waste and desolate places, and the land of your destruction, will surely now be too cramped for the inhabitants, and those who swallowed you up will be far away. 20 From now on each of the children of your captivity will say in your midst, “The place is too cramped for me; make room for me that I may dwell.” 21 Then you will say in your heart, “Who has raised these for me, seeing that I had lost my children and was solitary, an exile and an outcast? Who then has brought up these? Look, I was left alone; these, where were they?” 22 Thus says the Lord GOD, “Behold, I will reveal my power among the nations, and to the kingdoms I will raise my standard, and your children will come in palanquins, and your daughters will be carried on the shoulders. 23 And kings will be your nursing fathers, and their queens will minister to you; they will bow down to you with their faces to the earth and make supplication to you, and lick the dust of your feet; and you will know that I am the LORD, because those who hope for my salvation will not be ashamed.” 24 Will the spoil be taken from the mighty, and will that which the just have taken captive be delivered? Another paraphrase: Jerusalem says, “Is it possible that the prey will be taken from Esau the wicked, which he took from me, concerning whom it was said, ‘By your sword you will live’? Or the captive whom Ishmael led captive, concerning whom it has been said, ‘Will what belongs to the righteous be delivered?’” 25 For thus says the LORD, “I will surely restore the captivity of the mighty, and I will deliver the prey of the terrible; surely the captivity of the mighty I will restore, and the prey of the terrible I will deliver, and I will take vengeance for you, and I will save your children.” Another paraphrase: For thus says the LORD, “Yes, the prey that the mighty Esau has taken from you will be taken from him, and the captivity that the proud Ishmael led captive, concerning whom it has been said, ‘He will be a conqueror among men,’ will be delivered; and I will save your children. 26 And I will give the flesh of those who oppress you as food to every bird of the heavens, and as they are drunk with new wine, so the beasts of the field will be drunk with their blood; and all flesh will know that I, the LORD, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.”

50Thus says the LORD, “Where is the bill of divorcement that I gave to your congregation, that she is cast off? Or who is the creditor to whom I sold you? Look, for your sins you were sold, and for your rebellion your congregation was put away. 2 Why, when I sent my prophets, did they not repent? They prophesied, but they did not obey. Is my power altogether deficient, so that I cannot save? Look, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness; their fish stink because there is no water, and die of thirst. 3 I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.” 4 The Lord GOD has given me a tongue to teach, to give knowledge and to instruct the righteous with wisdom, those who weary themselves with the words of the Torah; each morning rising up early to send His prophets, so that perhaps the ears of the sinners might be opened and they might receive instruction. 5 The Lord GOD has sent me to prophesy, and I did not refuse, nor turn back. 6 I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to those who plucked off the hair; I did not hide my face from shame and spitting. 7 The Lord GOD is my helper; therefore I will not be put to shame; therefore I have set my face strong as a rock, and I know that I will not be put to shame. 8 My righteousness is near; who is he that will contend with me? Let us stand forth together; who is my adversary? Let him come near me. 9 See, the Lord GOD is my helper; who is he that will condemn me? They will all wear out like a garment, like a garment that the moth eats. 10 The prophet said, “The Holy One, blessed be He, will say to all the nations, ‘Who among you fears the LORD, who obeys the voice of His servant the prophet, who keeps the Torah while in distress, like a man who walks in darkness and has no light, trusting in the name of the LORD and relying on the salvation of his God?’” 11 The nations answered and said to him, “O our Lord! it is not possible for us to occupy ourselves with the Torah, because we continually wage war against one another, and when we gain the victory one over the other, we burn their houses with fire and bring their children and their treasures into captivity; in this manner our days are spent, so it is impossible for us to occupy ourselves with the Torah.” The Holy One, blessed be He, answered and said to them, “Behold, all of you who stir up a fire and lay hold on the sword, go, fall into the fire that you have stirred up, and by the sword that you have laid hold on. This will be to you from my Memra: you will turn to your destruction.”[45]

51Listen to my Memra, you who follow after truth, who seek instruction from the LORD; consider that you were cut out like a stone hewn from a rock, that you were cut out like a mass hewn out of a hollow cistern. 2 Consider Abraham your father and Sarah who conceived you; for Abraham was one alone in the world, and I brought him to my service, I also blessed him and multiplied him. 3 For the LORD will comfort Zion, He will comfort all her waste places, and He will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness will be found in her, those who offer thanksgiving, and the voice of those who praise. 4 Listen to my Memra, my people, and give ear, my congregation, to my service; for the Torah will go forth from me, and my judgment like a light; the nations whom I led into captivity will praise it. 5 My righteousness is near; my salvation has gone forth, and the nations will be judged by the strength of the arm of my might; the isles will hope for my Memra, and they will wait for the strength of the arm of my might. 6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens and consider the earth beneath; for the heavens will vanish away like smoke, and the earth will wear out like a garment, and its inhabitants likewise will die; but my salvation will be forever, and my righteousness will not fail. 7 Listen to my Memra, you who know the truth, the people in whose heart is the instruction of my Torah; do not be afraid of the reproaches of the sons of men, neither be terrified at their grandeur. 8 For they vanish like a garment that the moth eats, and like wool that rottenness seizes; but my righteousness will be forever, and my salvation from generation to generation. 9 Reveal yourself, reveal yourself, put on the strength of might from the LORD; reveal yourself as in the days of old, in the generations that were at the beginning. Was it not for your sake, O congregation of Israel, that I broke the mighty, that I destroyed Pharaoh and his host, who were strong as a dragon?[46] 10 Was it not for your sake, O congregation of Israel, that I dried up the sea, the water of the great deep, that I made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over? 11 So the redeemed of the LORD will be gathered together out of their captivity and come to Zion with singing; and everlasting joy will be theirs, which will not cease; and a cloud of glory will overshadow their heads; they will find joy and gladness, and there will be an end of sorrow and sighing for the house of Israel. 12 I, even I, am He who comforts you; of whom are you afraid? Of a mortal man, or of a son of man who is counted like grass? 13 And that you should forget the worship of the LORD your Maker, who suspended the heavens and founded the earth, and should fear continually all the day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? And where is now the fury of the oppressor? 14 Vengeance hastens to be revealed, and the righteous will not die in the pit, nor will they lack their food. 15 For I am the LORD your God, who rebukes the sea though its waves roar; the LORD of hosts is His name. 16 I have put the words of my prophecy in your mouth, and with the shadow of my power I have protected you, to raise up the nation concerning which it has been promised that they will be as many as the stars of heaven, and to establish the congregation concerning which it has been promised that they will multiply like the dust of the earth, and to say to the inhabitants of Zion, “You are my people.”[47] 17 Magnify yourself, magnify yourself; arise, O Jerusalem! you who have received from the LORD the cup of His wrath; the bowl of the cup of cursing you have drunk, and you have drained it. 18 There is no one to comfort her of all the sons she has brought forth, nor is there one to take hold of her hand of all the sons she has raised. 19 Two tribulations have come upon you, O Jerusalem, and you are not able to arise; when four come upon you, plundering and destruction and famine and sword, there will be none to comfort you besides me. 20 Your children will be torn in pieces; they will be cast at the head of all the streets like broken vials; they are full of the fury of the LORD and of the rebuke of your God. 21 Therefore hear this now, you who are cast out, drunk with tribulation but not with wine: 22 Thus says your Lord, the LORD, even your God who will take the vengeance of judgment for His people, “I have taken away the cup of cursing, the bowl of the cup of my fury; you will no longer drink it again. 23 But I will deliver it into the hand of those who afflict you, who have said to you, ‘Bow down that we may go over’; and you made your glory like the ground, and you became like the street to those who passed by.”

52Reveal yourself, reveal yourself, put on your strength, O Zion; put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the city of holiness; for the uncircumcised and the polluted will pass through you no more. 2 Shake yourself from the dust; arise and sit upon the throne of glory, O Jerusalem; the chains of your neck are broken, O captive congregation of Zion. 3 For thus says the LORD, “You were sold for nothing, and you will be redeemed without money.” 4 For thus says the Lord GOD, “My people went down in the beginning into Egypt to sojourn there, and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause. 5 Therefore now I am ready to redeem them, says the LORD; for my people was sold for nothing; the nations that ruled over them boasted, says the LORD; and continually, all the day, they provoke them to anger because of the worship of my name. 6 Therefore my name will be magnified among the nations; therefore at that time you will know that I am He who has spoken, and my Memra will abide.” 7 How beautiful upon the mountains of the land of Israel are the feet of him who brings good tidings, who proclaims peace, who proclaims salvation, saying to the congregation of Zion, “The kingdom of your God is revealed.”[48] 8 The voice of your rulers! They lift up their voice, together they offer praise, because with their eyes they see the mighty works that the LORD will do when He returns His Shekinah to Zion. 9 Break out and shout together, you waste places of Jerusalem, for the LORD will comfort His people, Jerusalem will be redeemed. 10 The LORD has revealed His holy arm in the eyes of all the nations, and all who are at the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God. 11 Separate yourselves, separate yourselves, go out from there, do not come near the unclean; come forth from the midst of her; those who carry the vessels of the house of the sanctuary of the LORD have been chosen. 12 For you will not go forth in haste from among the nations, nor be carried in flight to your land; for your guide is the LORD, and He who will gather your captivity is the God of Israel. 13 Behold, my servant the Messiah will prosper; He will be exalted and extolled, and He will be very strong.[49] 14 As the house of Israel anxiously hoped for Him for many days, that house which was poor among the nations, their appearance and their brightness being worse than that of the sons of men, 15 so He will scatter many nations; before Him kings will keep silence; they will put their hands upon their mouths, for that which had not been told them they will see, and that which they had not heard they will consider.

53Who has believed this our report? And to whom is the power of the arm of the LORD now revealed? 2 The righteous will be great before Him, like budding branches; and like a tree that sends forth its roots by the streams of water, so the generation of the just will multiply in the land that has need of Him. 3 His appearance will not be the appearance of a common person, nor His fear the fear of an ordinary man; but a holy brightness will be His brightness, so that everyone who sees Him will gaze upon Him. 4 Although He will be in contempt, yet He will cut off the glory of all the wicked; they will be weak and wretched. Look, we are in contempt and not esteemed, like a man of pain and appointed to sickness, and as if He had removed the face of His Shekinah from us. 5 Therefore He will pray for our sins, and our iniquities will be forgiven for His sake; for we are considered crushed, smitten of the LORD, and afflicted. 6 He will build the house of the sanctuary, which was profaned on account of our sins; He was delivered over on account of our iniquities, and through His teaching peace will be multiplied upon us, and through the teaching of His words our sins will be forgiven us.[50] 7 All we like sheep have been scattered; everyone of us has turned to his own way; and it pleased the LORD to forgive the sins of all of us for His sake. 8 He will pray, and He will be answered; yes, before He opens His mouth He will be heard. He will deliver over the mighty of the nations like a lamb to the slaughter, and like a sheep that is dumb before her shearers; none will open his mouth in His presence or speak a word. 9 He will gather our captives from affliction and pain, and who will be able to recount the wonderful works that will be done for us in His days? He will remove the rule of the nations from the land of Israel; the sins that my people have committed have come upon them. 10 And He will deliver the wicked into hell, and the riches of treasures that they got by violence to the death of Abaddon, so that those who commit sin will not remain, and that they should not speak folly with their mouth.[51] 11 And it was the pleasure of the LORD to refine and purify the remnant of His people, in order to cleanse their souls from sin, that they might see the kingdom of their Messiah, that their sons and daughters might multiply and prolong their days, and that those who keep the Torah of the LORD might prosper through His pleasure. 12 He will deliver their souls from the servitude of the nations; they will see the vengeance upon their enemies; they will be satisfied with the spoil of their kings. By His wisdom He will justify the righteous, in order to make many keep the Torah, and He will pray for their sins. 13 Therefore I will divide to Him the spoil of many peoples, and the treasures of strong fortifications; He will divide the spoil, because He delivered His life to death, and He made the rebellious keep the Torah; He will pray for the sins of many, and as for the transgressors, each will be pardoned for His sake.

54Sing, O Jerusalem, who was like a barren woman who does not bear; break out in praise and be glad, you who were like a woman who does not conceive; for the children of Jerusalem who was laid desolate will be more than the children of the inhabited city, says the LORD. 2 Enlarge the place of the house of your dwelling, and do not hold back the inhabitants from the cities of the land; multiply the people of the camp, and increase the number of your governors. 3 For you will spread abroad to the south and to the north, and your children will inherit the nations and make the desolate cities inhabited. 4 Fear not, for you will not be ashamed; neither be put to shame, for you will not be disgraced; for you will forget the shame of your youth and will not remember the reproaches of your widowhood any more. 5 For your husband, who is your Maker, the LORD of hosts is His name, and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel; the God of the whole earth He will be called. 6 For as a woman forsaken and afflicted in spirit, the Shekinah of the LORD met you, like a wife of one’s youth who was forsaken, says your God. 7 In a little anger I forsook you, but with great mercies I will gather together your captivity. 8 For a little moment I removed the presence of my Shekinah, yes, for a short time, from you; but with everlasting kindness, which will not cease, I will have mercy on you, says the LORD your Redeemer. 9 This will be before me as the days of Noah, when I swore by my Memra that the waters of the flood that were in the days of Noah would no longer pass over the earth; so I swear by my Memra that my anger will not be hurled upon you, neither will I rebuke you. 10 For the mountains will depart, and the hills will be shaken, but my kindness will not depart from you, O Jerusalem, neither will the covenant of my peace be removed, says the LORD, who will have mercy on you. 11 O distressed city, who receives affliction, concerning whom the nations say, “She will not be comforted”: I am about to lay the stones of your pavement with mosaic, and your foundations with costly stones. 12 And I will make your timber of gems, and your gates will be of carbuncles, and all your borders of precious stones. 13 And all your children will learn the Torah of the LORD, and great will be the peace of your children. 14 In righteousness you will be established; you will be far removed from oppression, for you will not fear it, and from terror, for it will not come near you. 15 The captivity of your people will surely be gathered to you; in the end the kings of the nations, who are gathered together to oppress you, O Jerusalem, will be cast down in the midst of you. 16 I have created the smith who blows the coals in the fire and brings forth an instrument for his use; and I have created the destroyer to destroy. 17 No weapon that is formed against you, O Jerusalem, will prosper; and every tongue that rises against you in judgment you will condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is from me, says the LORD.

55Everyone who is willing to learn, let him come and learn; and he who has no silver, come, hear and learn; come, hear and learn, without price and without money, teaching that is better than wine and milk.[52] 2 Why do you weigh out your silver for what is not food, and your wealth for what does not satisfy? Listen diligently to my Memra, and you will eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance. 3 Incline your ear and receive the instruction of my Torah; obey my Memra, and your soul will live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, the sure mercies of David. 4 I have appointed him a prince, a king, and a ruler over all the kingdoms. 5 A people whom you do not know will serve you, and a people who have not known you will run to offer tribute to you, because of the LORD your God and for the Holy One of Israel, for He has glorified you. 6 Seek the fear of the LORD while you are alive; make supplication before His presence while you remain. 7 Let the wicked forsake his way of wickedness, and the man of violence his thoughts, and let him return to the worship of the LORD, and He will have mercy on him; and let him return to the fear of our God, for He will abundantly pardon. 8 For your thoughts are not as my thoughts, and your ways are not right, like the ways of my goodness, says the LORD. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways better than your ways, and my thoughts better than your thoughts. 10 For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and does not return there, but waters the earth and makes it sprout and be fruitful, that it may give abundant grain of seed to the sower and food enough for the eater, 11 so will be the word of my kindness that proceeds from my presence; it will not return to my presence void, but it will accomplish what I please and will prosper in the thing for which I sent it. 12 For you will go out with joy from among the nations, and with peace you will be led to your land; the mountains and the hills will rejoice before you with praise, and all the trees of the field will clap with their branches. 13 Instead of the wicked the righteous will rise up, and instead of sinners those who fear sin will rise up; and it will be before the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that will not cease.

56Thus says the LORD, “Keep judgment and do justice, for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed.” 2 Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who lays hold on it, everyone who keeps the Sabbath from polluting it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil. 3 Let not the son of the foreigner who is joined to the people of the LORD say, “The LORD has utterly separated me from His people”; neither let the eunuch say, “See, I am considered a dry tree.” 4 For thus says the LORD to the eunuchs who keep my Sabbath days, and delight in what I desire, and take hold of my covenant, 5 “Even to them I will give, in the house of my sanctuary and in the land of the house of my Shekinah, a place and a name better than that of sons and of daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off. 6 And the sons of the nations who are joined to the people of the LORD, to serve Him and to love the name of the LORD, to be His servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath from polluting it and takes hold of my covenant, 7 even them I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their holy sacrifices will be offered up with acceptance upon my altar; for the house of my sanctuary will be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” 8 The Lord GOD, who will gather together the scattered ones of Israel, says, “I will again gather their captivity, gathering them together.” 9 All the kings of the nations who are assembled together to oppress you, O Jerusalem, will be cast down in the midst of you; they will be food for the beasts of the field, the beasts of the forest will be satisfied with them. 10 Their watchmen are blind; they know nothing; all of them are dumb dogs, they cannot bark; they are slumbering, they lie down, they love to sleep. 11 Yes, they are greedy dogs that do not know how to be satisfied; they are evildoers who do not know how to become wise; all of them go their own way, to rob the treasures of Israel. 12 “Come,” they say, “we will fetch wine, and we will be drunk with old wine; and tomorrow our banquet will be better than today, great, very great.”

57The righteous die, and no one lays my fear to heart; and the men who show mercy are taken away, and they do not consider that the righteous are taken away on account of the evil that is to come. 2 They will enter into peace; they will rest in the place of their beds, those who keep His Torah. 3 But you, come near here, people of a generation whose works are evil, whose planting was of a holy planting, but who are adulterers and the sexually immoral. 4 At whom do you make your sport? At whom do you open your mouth and keep speaking great things? Are you not rebellious children, a lying seed? 5 you who worship idols beneath every green tree, who sacrifice the children in the valleys under the clefts of the rocks? 6 Among the smooth stones of the valley is your portion; yes, they are your lot; even to them you have poured out drink-offerings, you have offered sacrifices. Ah, for these things my Memra will bring retribution. 7 Upon a lofty and high mountain you have set the place of the house of your dwelling; even there you went up to offer sacrifice. 8 Behind the doors and the doorposts you have set up the memorial of your idols; you have been like a woman who is loved by her husband but goes astray after strangers; you have enlarged your bed, you have made a covenant with some of them; you loved the place, the place of their beds, the place you have chosen. 9 When you kept the Torah, you prospered in the kingdom; and when you multiplied good works for yourself, your camp was enlarged, and you sent your messengers to a distant land; and you brought down mighty nations to hades. 10 You wearied yourself in the greatness of your way, yet you did not think to give back the many treasures you had multiplied; therefore you did not think to repent. 11 Of whom have you been afraid? And on account of whom have you feared? For you have surely multiplied speaking lies, and you have not remembered my service, nor laid my fear to your heart. I would have given you the ends of the world if you had returned to my Torah; but you have not returned to me. 12 I have shown you those good works that would have been your righteousness; but you have multiplied evil works that did not profit you. 13 Proclaim aloud whether your deceitful works will save you, in which you have been occupied from your youth; the wind will carry them all away, they will be as nothing; but he who puts his trust in my Memra will possess the earth and inherit my holy mountain. 14 And He will say, “Teach and admonish, turn the heart of this people to the right way; remove the stumbling-block of the wicked out of the way of the congregation of my people.” 15 For thus says the high and lofty One who dwells in the heavens, and whose name is Holy, who inhabits the height; yes, His holy Shekinah has promised to save the contrite of heart and the humble of spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to support the heart of the contrite. 16 “For I will not take the vengeance of judgment forever, neither will my wrath be eternal; for I will revive the spirits of the dead, and the souls I have created. 17 My wrath was upon them on account of their robbed riches, and I struck them; I removed my Shekinah from them and cast them out; I scattered their captives, because they went astray after the imagination of their hearts. 18 The way of their repentance is revealed before me, and I will forgive them, and I will have compassion on them, and grant consolations to them and to those who mourn with them.”[53] 19 The prophet said, “He who creates the speech on the lips of every man, peace will be made for the righteous who have kept my Torah of old, and peace will be made for the penitent who return to my Torah. It is at hand that I will pardon them, says the LORD.” 20 But the wicked are like the troubled sea that seeks to rest but cannot, and its waters bring forth mire and dirt. 21 There is no peace, says my God, for the wicked.

58Cry aloud, O prophet, do not spare; lift up your voice like the voice of a trumpet, and show my people their rebellion, and the house of Jacob their sins. 2 And they seek instruction from me daily, as if to know the ways that are right before me, finding delight in my presence like a people that does righteousness and has not forsaken the judgment of their God; they ask of me judgment and truth, as if they delighted to draw near to the fear of the LORD. 3 They say, “Why do we fast, as it is revealed before You? Why have we afflicted ourselves, as is known to You?” The prophet said to them, “Look, in the day of your fast you seek your extortions, and you bring near all your stumbling-blocks.” 4 Look, you fast for provocation and strife, and to strike with the fist of wickedness; you will not fast a fast as if to make your voice to be heard on high. 5 Is this the fast that I delight in, a day for a man to afflict himself? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush and to spend the night in sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast before the presence of the LORD, and a day in which I delight? 6 Is not this the fast that I have chosen: to scatter the assembly of wickedness, to loosen the fetters of a decree of perverted judgment, to set at liberty the sons of the freeborn who have suffered violence, and to remove all perverted judgment? 7 Should you not share your bread with the hungry, and bring the poor who are cast out into the midst of your house? When you see the naked, that you cover him, and not hide yourself from your kin who is your own flesh? 8 Then your light will be revealed like the early dawn, and the healing of your wound will appear quickly; your great righteousness will go before you, and you will be gathered to the glory that is in the presence of the LORD. 9 Then you will pray, and the LORD will hear your prayer; you will make supplication before Him, and He will grant your supplication, if you put away from your midst perverted judgment, the pointing of the finger, and the speaking of violent words; 10 and if you breathe out your soul before the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light will rise in obscurity, and your darkness will be like the noonday. 11 And the LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in the years of drought, and He will revive your body with eternal life; and your soul will be full of delights like a watered garden, well irrigated, and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail. 12 Your offspring will build the old waste places; you will raise up the foundations of many generations; and they will call you, “The restorer of the right way, the converter of the wicked to the Torah.” 13 If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from following your own employment on my holy day, and meet the Sabbath with great delight, to sanctify the LORD and honor Him, not doing your own ways, nor pursuing your own wants, nor speaking violent words; 14 then you will delight yourself in the LORD, and He will cause you to dwell in the strong places of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father; for thus it is decreed by the Memra of the LORD.

59It is not on account of any deficiency in the power of the LORD that you are not saved, nor because it is too difficult for Him to hear that your prayer is not received; 2 but your iniquities separate between you and your God, and your sins have caused Him to take away the favor of His Shekinah from you, so as not to receive your prayer. 3 For your hands are defiled with innocent blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips speak lies, your tongue mutters deceit. 4 There is none who truly prays, nor any who pleads for faithfulness; they trust in worthlessness and speak lies; they hasten and bring forth words of violence out of their heart. 5 They hatch the eggs of a viper, and they weave the threads of spiders; he who eats of their eggs dies, and when they are hatched, they bring forth flying serpents. 6 Like a spider’s web, with which no one can be covered, so there is no profit from the works of the wicked; their works are works of violence, and the work of a lie is in their hands. 7 Their feet run to do evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of violence, plunder and destruction are in their paths. 8 The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their ways; they have perverted their ways; whoever goes in them will not know peace. 9 Therefore judgment is removed far from us, and the least righteousness does not meet us; we wait for light, but there is darkness; for brightness, but we walk in obscurity. 10 We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes; we stumble at noonday like those who stumble in the dark; it is shut up before us, as the graves are shut up before the dead. 11 We all roar like bears because of our enemies who are gathered against us, and we mourn like doves; we hoped for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far removed from us. 12 For our iniquities are multiplied before You, and our sins testify against us; for our iniquities are revealed to us, and our crimes, we know them: 13 we have rebelled and acted falsely against the Memra of the LORD; we have turned backward from following after the worship of our God; we have spoken falsehood and apostasy, conceiving and bringing forth lying words from our hearts. 14 And justice is turned away backward, and righteousness stands far off; for those who follow truth stumble in the street, and those who follow faithfulness cannot show themselves. 15 And those who follow truth are hidden, and those who depart from evil become a prey. It is revealed before the LORD that there is no justice, which is evil in His sight. 16 And it is revealed in His sight that there is no man who has good works, and it is known to Him that there is no man who would arise and seek after them; therefore He will redeem them by the arm of His strength, and by the Memra of His delight He will help them. 17 It is revealed that He will work a great salvation for His people; yes, He will render vengeance to His enemies. 18 He is the Lord of retributions; He will render recompense, vengeance to His enemies, retribution to His adversaries; He will render recompense to the islands. 19 They will fear the name of the LORD from the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun. When the oppressors come in like a flood of the river Euphrates, they will be broken by the Memra of the LORD.[54] 20 And the Redeemer will come to Zion, and turn the transgressors of the house of Jacob to the Torah, says the LORD. 21 And as for me, this is my covenant with them, says the LORD, “My Holy Spirit that is upon you, and the words of my prophecy that I have put in your mouth, will not depart out of your mouth, nor out of the mouth of your children, nor out of the mouth of your children’s children, says the LORD, from now on and forever.”

60Arise, shine, O Jerusalem, for the time of your redemption has come, and the glory of the LORD is revealed upon you. 2 For the darkness will cover the earth, and thick darkness the kingdoms; but in you the Shekinah of the LORD will dwell, and His glory will be revealed upon you. 3 And the nations will come to your light, and kings to your brightness. 4 Lift up your eyes all around, O Jerusalem, and see; all the children of the people of your captivity are gathered together; your sons will come from far into your midst, and your daughters will be carried upon the arms. 5 Then you will see and be enlightened, and you will be struck with awe, and your heart will be enlarged because of the terror of sinners; for the riches of the west will be transferred to you, the treasures of the nations will be brought to you. 6 A multitude of Arabians will cover you all around, the dromedaries of Midian and Holad; all of them from Sheba will come; they will be laden with gold and frankincense, and those who come with them will proclaim the praises of the LORD. 7 All the sheep of the Arabians will be gathered to you, the rams of Nebaioth will minister to you; they will be offered up with acceptance upon my altar, and I will glorify the house of my glory. 8 Who are these who come openly like swift clouds, and do not tarry? The captives of Israel who are gathered together come to their land, like doves that return to their dove-houses. 9 Surely the isles will wait for my Memra, and those who embark in the ships of the sea, the hand that stretches out their sails, will be first to bring your sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, to the name of the LORD your God and to the Holy One of Israel, because He has glorified you. 10 And the sons of the nations will build up your walls, and their kings will minister to you; for in my wrath I struck you, but in my favor I have had mercy on you. 11 Your gates will be open continually; they will not be shut day or night, that men may bring to you the treasures of the nations, and their kings in chains. 12 For the nation and kingdom that will not serve you, O Jerusalem, will perish; yes, those nations will be utterly destroyed. 13 The glory of Lebanon will be brought to you, the fir tree, the elm, and the box tree together, to beautify the place of the house of my sanctuary; and I will make the place of the dwelling of my Shekinah glorious. 14 The sons of those who enslaved you will come and bow down to you, and all who provoked you to anger will prostrate themselves at the soles of your feet to make supplication to you; and they will call you, “The city of the LORD, the Zion in which the Holy One of Israel delights.” 15 Whereas you have been forsaken and an outcast, so that no one went through you, I will make you an eternal glory, the house of joy for generation and generation. 16 And you will be satisfied with the riches of the nations, and in the spoil of their kings you will delight yourself; and you will know that I am the LORD, your Savior and your Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob. 17 For the brass of which they robbed you, O Jerusalem, I will bring gold, and for the iron I will bring silver, and for the wood brass, and for the stones iron; I will also make your governors peace and your rulers righteousness. 18 Violence will no longer be heard in your land, plundering nor destruction within your borders; but they will proclaim salvation on your ways, and on your gates there will be those who praise. 19 You will no longer need the sun for a light by day, neither for brightness the moon by night; but the LORD will be to you an everlasting light, and your God your glory. 20 Your kingdom will cease no more, and your glory will not be removed; for the LORD will be your everlasting light, and the days of your mourning will be ended. 21 Your people will be all righteous; forever they will inherit the land, the plant of my delight, the work of my might, that I may surely be glorified. 22 He who is little among them will become a thousand, and he who is weak will become a strong nation; I, the LORD, will bring it to pass in its time.

61The prophet said, “The spirit of prophecy from before the presence of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek; He has sent me to strengthen the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and to the prisoners, ‘Appear in light!’ 2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn; 3 to appoint to those who mourn in Zion that to them be given a crown for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the spirit of praise for their spirit which is faint; they will be called princes of truth, the people of the LORD, that He may surely be glorified.” 4 And they will build the old wastes, they will raise up the former desolations, and they will repair the cities that were wastes, the desolations of many generations. 5 And strangers will stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the nations will be your plowmen and will dress your vineyards. 6 But you will be called the Priests of the LORD; it will be said of you that you are those who minister before our God; you will eat the riches of the nations, and in their glory you will delight yourselves. 7 Instead of your having suffered shame and confusion, I will bring to you double mercies, which I have promised you; and the nations who glory in their portion will be put to shame; therefore in their own land they will possess double; everlasting joy will be theirs. 8 For I, the LORD, love justice; lying and violence are an abomination in my presence; and I will render the reward of their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. 9 And their sons will be magnified among the nations, and their sons’ sons among the kingdoms; all who see them will acknowledge them, that they are the seed that the LORD has blessed. 10 Jerusalem will say, “I will greatly rejoice in the Memra of the LORD, my soul will be joyful in the salvation of my God; for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, like a bridegroom who rejoices in his bridal chamber, and like the high priest who adorns himself with his robes, and like a bride who is adorned with her jewels.” 11 For as the earth brings forth her shoots, and as a watered garden causes the things that are sown in it to grow, so the Lord GOD will reveal the righteousness and the praise of Jerusalem before all the nations.

62Until I work salvation for Zion, I will give no rest to the nations; until I bring consolation to Jerusalem, I will give no rest to the kingdoms, until her light is revealed like the early dawn, and her salvation burns like a lamp. 2 And the nations will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory; and they will call you by a new name, which the Memra of the LORD will declare. 3 You will be a crown of joy before the LORD, and a diadem of glory before your God. 4 You will no longer be termed Forsaken, neither will your land any more be termed Desolate; but you will be called Abeday Reoothee Bahh, and your land Inhabited; for the LORD will delight in you, and your land will be inhabited. 5 For as a young man dwells with a virgin, so your sons will dwell in you; and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so your God will rejoice over you. 6 The works of your righteous fathers, O city of Jerusalem, are right, and kept by me all the day and all the night continually; the remembrance of your excellencies is declared before the LORD, it will not fail you. 7 Their remembrance will not cease from before Him, until He establishes and makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth. 8 The LORD has sworn by His right hand and by the arm of His strength, “I will no longer give your grain to be food for your enemies, and the sons of the nations will not drink your wine for which you have labored. 9 But those who gather the grain will eat it and offer praise before the LORD, and those who tread out the wine will drink it in the courts of my holiness.” 10 O prophets, pass through and return through the gates; turn the heart of the people into the right way; bring good tidings of good things, and consolations to the righteous, who remove the thoughts of an evil imagination, which are like a stone of stumbling; lift up a standard for the people. 11 Behold, the LORD has proclaimed to the ends of the world, “Say to the congregation of Zion, ‘Behold, your Redeemer will be revealed; the reward for those who do His word is with Him, and all their works are manifest before Him.’” 12 And they will call them, “The holy people, The redeemed of the LORD”; and you will be called Teviatha, that is, Sought out, A city not forsaken.

63Who has spoken these things? He who will bring the blow upon Persia, the mighty vengeance upon Bozrah, to execute vengeance and judgment for His people, as He has sworn to them by His Memra. He has said, “I will reveal myself as I have spoken in righteousness; great is my power to save.” 2 Why are the mountains red from the blood of the slain? Yes, the valleys will flow like wine from the winepress. 3 As the grapes are trodden in the vat, so He will increase the slaughter in the camps of the nations; they will have no strength before me; yes, I will slay them in my anger and tread them down in my fury; and I will break the strength of their mighty ones before me, and all their wise men I will consume. 4 For the day of vengeance is before me, and the year of the salvation of my people has come. 5 And it is revealed before me that there is no man whose works are good, and it is known to me that there is no man who will stand up and pray on behalf of them; yes, I will redeem them by the arm of my strength, and by the Memra of my delight I will help them. 6 And I will slay the nations in my anger, and I will tread them down in my fury, and I will cast the slain of their mighty ones into the lowest parts of the earth.[55] 7 The prophet said, “I will mention the loving-kindness of the LORD, the praise of the LORD, according to all that the LORD has dealt bountifully with us, and His great goodness toward the house of Israel, which He has given to them according to His mercies and according to the multitude of His loving-kindnesses.” 8 And He said, “Surely they are my people, children who will not lie”; and His Memra became their salvation. 9 Whenever they sinned against Him, so that He might have brought distress upon them, He did not distress them; but an angel was sent from Him, who in His mercy redeemed them; and in His compassion He delivered them; and He bore them and carried them all the days of old. 10 But they rebelled against the word of His holy prophets and blasphemed, and His Memra became their enemy, and He waged war against them. 11 And He had compassion for the glory of His name, because of the remembrance of His goodness of old, the mighty works that He did by the hands of Moses for His people; so that the nations should not say, “Where is He who brought them up out of the sea? Where is He who led them through the wilderness like a shepherd his flock? Where is He who made the word of His holy prophets to dwell among them? 12 He who led them by the right hand of Moses, the arm of His glory, dividing the waters of the Red Sea before them, to make Himself an everlasting name? 13 He who led them through the depths, like a horse that does not stumble in the plain?” So they too did not stumble. 14 As a beast is led in a plain, the Memra of the LORD led them; so You led Your people, to make Yourself a glorious name. 15 Look down from heaven and reveal Yourself from the habitation of Your holiness and of Your glory; where is Your vengeance and Your great might? The multitude of Your mercies and Your compassion toward me are restrained. 16 For You are He, whose mercies towards us are as many as a father’s towards his children; for Abraham has not brought us up out of Egypt, and Israel has not performed wonderful works for us in the wilderness; You are the LORD; Your mercies towards us are many, like a father’s towards his children, O our Redeemer; Your name is from everlasting.[56] 17 Why have You cast us off, O LORD, that we should go astray from the paths that are right in Your sight, like the nations that have no part in the instruction of Your Torah? Our heart is not turned away from Your fear; return Your Shekinah to Your people, for the sake of Your righteous servants, to whom You have sworn by Your Memra to make the tribes among them Your inheritance. 18 The people of Your holiness possessed Your sanctuary but a little while; our adversaries have trodden it down. 19 We are Your people who were of old; You have not given the teaching of Your Torah to the nations, neither is Your name invoked upon them; You have not inclined the heavens to them and revealed Yourself; the mountains quaked before You.

64When You sent forth Your anger like fire in the days of Elijah, the sea was melted, the waters were flames of fire, to make Your name known to the enemies of Your people, that the nations might tremble at Your presence. 2 When You did wonderful things that we did not expect, You revealed Yourself; the mountains trembled at Your presence. 3 And since the world was, ear has not heard the report of such mighty deeds, nor listened to the speech of rapture, nor has eye seen what Your people saw, the Shekinah of Your glory, O LORD; for there is none besides You who will do such things for Your righteous people who were of old, who hope for Your salvation. 4 The works of our righteous fathers were acceptable in Your sight, who rejoiced to do Your will in truth and in righteousness; in the way of Your goodness and mercy they remembered Your fear whenever Your wrath from Your presence was upon us, because we had sinned; on account of the works of our righteous fathers, we have been saved.[57] 5 But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteous acts are like a filthy garment; we all fade like the fading of a leaf, and because of our sins we are carried away like the wind. 6 And there is no one who prays in Your name, willing to lay hold on Your fear; because You have taken away the fear of Your Shekinah from us, and You have delivered us into the power of our sins. 7 And yet, O LORD, Your mercies upon us have been as many as a father’s upon his children; we are the clay, and You have formed us, and we are all the work of Your hand. 8 Let there not be, O LORD, very great wrath from You against us, neither remember iniquities forever; it is revealed before You that we are all Your people. 9 Your holy cities have become a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem has become a desolation. 10 The house of our holiness and of our glory, where our fathers worshipped You, is burned up with fire, and every place of our desire has become a waste. 11 Will You restrain Yourself for these things, O LORD? And will You give prosperity forever to the wicked who make us servile?

65I was sought concerning my Memra by those who did not ask after me; I was inquired of for instruction in my Torah by those who did not seek my fear; I will say, “Behold, I am inquired after continually, all the day, by a people that has not prayed in my name.” 2 I have sent my prophets every day to a rebellious people that walks in a way which was not good, after their own thoughts; 3 a people that provokes my Memra to anger continually to my face, that sacrifices in gardens to idols, and offers aromatic spices upon bricks; 4 who dwell in houses built of the dust of graves, and lodge with the dead bodies of the sons of men, who eat swine’s flesh, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels; 5 who say, “Stand by yourself, do not come near to me, for I am purer than you.” These provocations of theirs are like smoke before me; their recompense will be in hell, where the fire burns all the day. 6 Behold, it is written before me: I will not give them prolongation in this life, but I will recompense to them the wages for their sins, and deliver their bodies to the second death.[58] 7 Your sins and the sins of your fathers together are revealed before me, says the LORD, who have offered incense upon the mountains and blasphemed me upon the hills; therefore I will repay their former works into their bosom. 8 Thus says the LORD, “As Noah was found righteous in the generation of the flood, and I said that I would not destroy him, in order that I might raise up the world through him; so I will do for the sake of my righteous servants, in order that I may not destroy them all. 9 And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains; and my elect will inherit it, and my righteous servants will dwell there. 10 And Sharon will be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor a place for the herds of oxen to lie down, for my people who have sought my fear. 11 But you, O house of Israel, you have forsaken the worship of the LORD, you have forgotten the worship of my holy mountain, you who prepare tables for the idols and mix goblets for their gods. 12 Therefore I will deliver them to the sword, yes, all of you will be delivered to the slaughter; because I sent my prophets, and you did not repent; they prophesied, and you did not receive them, but did evil before me, and delighted yourselves in what I did not desire.” 13 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD, “My righteous servants will eat, but you, O wicked, will be hungry; my righteous servants will drink, but you, O wicked, will be thirsty; my righteous servants will rejoice, but you, O wicked, will be ashamed; 14 my righteous servants will sing for joy of heart, but you will cry out for sorrow of heart, and you will wail for vexation of spirit. 15 And you will leave your name for a curse to my chosen; for the Lord GOD will slay you with the second death, and call His righteous servants by another name,[59] 16 so that he who blesses in the earth will bless by the God of the covenant, and he who swears in the earth will swear by the God of the covenant; because the former troubles will be forgotten, and because they will be hidden from before me. 17 For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth, and the former will not be remembered, nor will they come into mind. 18 But be glad and rejoice in the world of worlds that I create; for I am creating Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. 19 And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and my people will be glad in her; and the voice of weeping will no longer be heard in her, nor the voice of those who cry. 20 No more will there be from there an infant who lives only a few days, or an old man who does not complete his days; for even the child who sins will die a hundred years old, but the sinner who is a hundred years old will be thrust out. 21 And they will build houses and inhabit them, and they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 22 They will not build, and others inhabit; they will not plant, and others eat; for as the days of the tree of life are the days of my people, and my elect will outlast the work of their hands. 23 They will not labor in vain, neither will they rear up children for death; for they will be the seed that the LORD has blessed, and the children of their children with them. 24 And before they pray before me, I will hear their prayer; and before they make supplication before me, I will grant their request. 25 The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox; and as for the serpent, dust will be its food. They will not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain,” says the LORD.

66Thus says the LORD, “The heavens are the throne of my glory, and the earth is a footstool before me; where is the house that you would build for me? And where is the place of the dwelling of my Shekinah? 2 For all these things my power has made, and have not all these things come to be? says the LORD; but it will be my delight to consider the man who is of a humble and contrite spirit, and trembles on account of my word.” 3 He who kills an ox is as if he slew a man; he who sacrifices a lamb, as if he broke a dog’s neck; he who presents an offering, as if he offered swine’s blood; the offering of their gifts is the gift of violence. Yes, they delight in their ways, and their soul finds pleasure in their abominations. 4 I also will desire their destruction, and they will not be delivered from what they dread; because when I sent my prophets, they did not repent; they prophesied, but they did not obey; but they did evil before me, and they delighted in what I did not desire. 5 Hear the word of the LORD, O you righteous who tremble on account of the words of His will; your brothers who hate you, who cast you out for my name’s sake, say, “Let the glory of the LORD be magnified, that we may see your joy”; but they will be put to shame. 6 A voice of tumult from the city of Jerusalem, a voice from the temple, a voice of the Memra of the LORD, who renders recompense to His enemies. 7 Before distress comes upon her, she will be redeemed; and before trembling comes upon her, like the pains of a woman in childbirth, her King will be revealed. 8 Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Is it possible that a country be made in one day, and a nation be created at once? But Zion will be comforted and will be filled with the people of the captivity of her captivity. 9 I am God; I created the world from the beginning, says the LORD; I, even I, created all men; I, even I, scattered them among the nations; I will also gather your captivity, says your God. 10 Rejoice on account of Jerusalem, and be glad on account of her, all you who love her; rejoice greatly with her, all you who mourn for her; 11 so that you may delight yourselves and be satisfied with the food of her consolations, so that you may drink and overflow with the wine of her glory. 12 For thus says the LORD, “I am bringing to her peace like the floods of the river Euphrates, and the glory of the nations like an overwhelming stream, and you will delight yourselves; you will be borne upon the sides, and you will be nursed upon the knees. 13 As a man whom his mother comforts, so my Memra will comfort you; and you will be comforted in Jerusalem.” 14 And when you see this, your heart will rejoice, and your bodies will flourish like grass; and the power of the LORD will be revealed to do good to His righteous servants, but a curse will come upon His enemies. 15 For the LORD will be revealed with fire, and His chariots like a whirlwind, to render His anger with fury and His rebuke with flames of fire. 16 For by fire and by His sword the LORD will judge all flesh, and the slain will be many before the LORD. 17 Those who prepare and purify themselves in the gardens of idols, multitude after multitude, eating swine’s flesh and the abomination and the mouse, will be consumed together, says the LORD. 18 Their works and their thoughts are revealed before me; I will gather all peoples, nations, and tongues, and they will come and see my glory. 19 And I will set a sign among them, and I will send those who escape of them among the nations, to the province of the sea, Pul and Lud who draw the bow and strike with it, to the province of Tubal, and Javan, the isles that are far off, that have not heard the fame of my might, neither have seen my glory; but they will declare my glory among the nations. 20 And they will bring all your brothers out of all nations as an offering before the LORD, upon horses and in chariots and litters and upon mules, yes, with songs to my holy mountain in Jerusalem, says the LORD, as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the sanctuary of the LORD. 21 And I will also take of them to be priests and Levites, says the LORD. 22 For as the new heavens and the new earth that I will make will remain before me, says the LORD, so will your seed and your name be made to remain. 23 And it will come to pass, at the time of the beginning of each month, and at the time of each Sabbath, that all flesh will come to worship before me, says the LORD. 24 And they will go forth and look upon the carcasses of the men, the sinners, who have rebelled against my Memra; for their souls will not die, and their fire will not be quenched; and the wicked will be judged in hell, until the righteous say concerning them, “We have seen enough.”[60]

Glossary